We are prepared to face al-Qaeda threat: IAF chief

File Photo of Indian Air Force Chief Arup Raha.

IAF chief Arup Raha on Friday said there was a threat from terror groups such as al-Qaeda but the country is ready to tackle such outfits.

“There is a threat perception from such agencies but the nation is prepared for it,” he said when asked about the al-Qaeda threat to start operations in India.

He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on the role of Air Force in the 1965 war with Pakistan.

U.S. media and intelligence agencies had said on Thursday that

>al-Qaeda has established a new branch to wage jihad in India, revive its caliphate and impose sharia in the Indian sub-continent.

The creation of the group called “Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent” was announced by As Sahab, al-Qaeda’s official media outlet, in a lengthy video posted on social media outlets.

Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the group’s leader Ayman al Zawahiri said “Qaedat al-Jihad” would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Security agencies feel the video could be an attempt by al-Qaeda to carry out fresh recruitments in the sub-continent as it stares at diminishing influence vis-a-vis the ISIS.