Al-Qaeda asks jihadists to spare women, children

An intelligence official says the audio message as well as the timing of its release is intriguing

After an Islamic State (IS) propaganda video featuring six Indians surfaced a fortnight ago, the Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which is headed by an Indian, has released a 26-minute audio message “cautioning fighters against harming innocent Muslims.”

Asim Umar, the head of AQIS identified by security agencies as Sanaullah Haq from Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and said to be based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region has said in this Urdu post that “targeting innocent Muslims as well women and children of the enemy, contradicts Islamic Shariah, and will prevent the fighter who perpetrates such an act from attaining the rewards of jihad.”

The audio message comes close on the heels of the IS video released on May 19. The 22-minute, Arabic-subtitled video “The Land of Hind Between Pain and Hope,” which featured six Indians was first released by the IS’ al-Barakah Province, its division for al-Hasakah in Homs, Syria on May 15.

Posted in Urdu

The audio message of AQIS, “Without Shariah, War is Mere Strife” was posted by Umar in Urdu, with Arabic, English and Bengali subtitles.

The message said that it had been produced by the As-Sahab Media Foundation. AQIS was created in 2014 under the umbrella of Al-Qaeda and it aims at recruitment of people from the Indian subcontinent.

A top intelligence official told The Hindu that the audio message as well as the timing of its release was “intriguing.”

Who is the audience?

“AQIS has no traction among Indians. Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri has also said something similar in the past about alienating the masses through such mindless killings. In India, we do not have fighters as such. Who is the target audience then? It might be of some appeal to neighbouring Bangladesh as there have been killings of gay activists, Hindu priests and liberal bloggers there and AQIS has claimed responsibility,” the intelligence official said.

Under verification

Another official said the authenticity of the audio message was being looked into.

“It could be the work of an agent from an intelligence agency across the border. May be the Pakistan ISI is trying to do this under the AQIS garb,” said the official.

“Along with the speech of Asim Umar, AQIS released an audio speech from its spokesman, Usama Mahmoud, condemning both the January 2016 attack at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, and the December 2015 bombing at the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) office in Mardan,” the SITE Intelligence Group, an American NGO said.