Al Qaeda’s latest propaganda video titled ‘From France to Bangladesh: The Dust Will Never Settle Down’ has made mention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Seven minutes into the video, Al Qaeda’s chief Asim Umar says that there is a war going on against Muslims from Waziristan to Charlie Hebdo “through World Bank and IMF policies, drone attacks, satanic conspiracy of Kerry-Lugar bill, Charlie Hebdo’s writings, UN charter, official sermons by muftis and Narendra Modi’s speeches which call for muslims to be burnt alive- this is the same war.”
This nine-minute video, released by Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS ) and produced by their own As Sahab production house. The formation of the new affiliate AQIS was announced by the overall leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al’Zawahiri last year.
According to the Guardian, the video, which reads like a long and bloody laundry list of al Qaeda’s ‘achievements’, is a bid to counter the growing influence of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria and the rivalry between the two Islamic militant organisations has intensified.
The nine-minute video also takes responsibility for a series of attacks that killed six writers and intellectuals in Bangladesh and Pakistan, including prominent blogger Avijit Roy who was hacked to death on a Dhaka street in February and the death of three others – Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, Rajib Haider and AKM Shafiul Islam- saying that they “have recently assassinated several blasphemers of the Prophet and insulters of Islamic law.”
In addition to these incidents, AQIS has also claimed that its jihadists were responsible for killing Muhammad Shakil Auj (who was the dean of Islamic Studies at the University of Karachi when he was shot in September 2014) and Aniqa Naz.
In the video Umar claims that the assassinations were all carried out by different branches of the Al Qaeda on instructions from “their leader Shaykh Ayman al-Zawahiri (may Allah protect him) ” and it is part of their commitment to fulfill the “oath of Sheikh Osama bin Laden (may Allah have mercy on him).”
“In France, Denmark, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries, enemies of the Prophet are slandering him with words which makes the hearts of the followers of Allah run cold,” Umar says in the video.
This video statement by al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent refers to another statement by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap), that claimed responsibility for the killing of of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists.
In the video Umar also pays tribute to a “Bangladeshi brother” named Sulaiman who “was martyred in a drone strike in Khurasan by the same powers that expressed solidarity with the blasphemers by participating in the march in Paris.”
AQIS has in the past attempted to use the missiles aboard a Pakistani frigate to attack American and Indian ships. The AQIS team that tried to commandeer the frigate was comprised of former and active Pakistani officers. They failed to launch the missiles, but reportedly killed Pakistani servicemen in the resulting shoot out.
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