On al-Qaida’s Influence and Presence in India

By Animesh Roul

On August 15 (Yesterday) I have a commentary published at Terrorism.openDemocracy (UK) on AQ’s desperate attempts, perceived influence and possible presence in India.

The involvement of a number of Indians in the foiled UK terror plots of early July this year rang alarm bells in India. Are Indian Muslims being lured into al-Qaida's global jihad? Britons of Indian origin have been tied to al-Qaida in the past, including the Muslim convert Dhiren Barot and Haroon Aswat, the alleged mastermind of the 21/7 bomb attacks. Unlike these Qaida predecessors, Kafeel Ahmed, one of the Glasgow car bombers, was born and raised in large part in India, in the booming hi-tech city of Bangalore.

Though Ahmed is hardly representative of the 138 million Muslims in India, it is clear that al-Qaida is keen to elevate its profile in the country. The Californian-born militant Adam Gaddahn and the group's deputy commander Ayman al-Zawahiri have called for attacks against India in recent al-Qaida videos, invoking the thorny issue of Kashmir as a rallying call for Muslims. Speaking to the country's large and disproportionately impoverished religious minority, al-Qaida seeks to place India on the same par as prime targets the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom.

Islamist violence in India has largely been grounded in local concerns: the secession of Kashmir and revenge against Hindu extremists for the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid. The growing terrorist threat within South Asia and the radicalisation of India's Muslim minorities through the 1990s were due to such national issues, and had little to do with international problems like Iraq or Afghanistan. Pakistan-based Islamist terror groups - such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e- Muhammed and Al Badr - have staged attacks in India in the past with international support. Yet, al Qaida as an organisation largely failed to establish its own cell in India.

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