After intelligence agencies confirmed that Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) chief, Maulana Asim Umar, has asked Indian Muslims to start jihad by killing senior Indian Police Service and Indi
After intelligence agencies confirmed that Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) chief, Maulana Asim Umar, has asked Indian Muslims to start jihad by killing senior Indian Police Service and Indian Administrative Service officers, the Delhi police swung into action on Friday and held a fresh security review of all its premises, including police stations, offices of senior officers and their residential colonies. The police also directed that drivers and wireless operators in the force should be immediately sensitised.
An alert issued by Arvind Deep, commissioner of police (special cell), said information was received that the AQIS chief in a statement had exhorted Indian Muslims to start jihad by killing senior IPS and IAS officers. In a communication to the joint commissioner of police (New Delhi range), he said the intelligence agencies had confirmed that such a statement was indeed made by the terrorist.
Emphasising the matter be accorded top priority, Mr Deep’s secret note said in wake of the intelligence agencies’ inputs and the nature of the committed AQIS cadres, all the officers should take adequate precautionary measures for their personal safety. A highly-placed source said a tight security blanket has been tightened around all high-profile offices in the NDMC area.
The US state department designated the AQIS as a foreign terrorist organisation and Umar as a global terrorist. Umar, whose original name is Sanaul Haq, was declared chief of Al Qaeda’s South Asia offshoot in a video released by head of the group, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in September 2014. In his statement, Umar said that the Indian state and its departments were equally responsible for the incidents against Muslims in India. “Other-wise how could anyone dare to just take knives and cut Mus-lims like vegetables We say if the Indian state is not involved in the massa-cre of Muslims, then Mus-lim youth should also be given a free hand, as given to Hindu mobsters during riots,” said the statement put out by SITE Intelli-gence Group, a non-government counter-terror group that researches and analyses terror threats.
Reports suggest Umar was a native of Sambhal in UP before leaving India for Pakistan in 1999. He is said to have suggested that Indian Muslims sho-uld follow the example of their brethren in Syria, adding that they should look at the example of Eu-rope where one mujahid after another has distu-rbed the entire continent.
