India is said to have upped security after the leader of al-Qaeda announced he had established a branch of the militant network in the Indian sub-continent and sought to reach out to Muslims from Burma to Kashmir.
Speaking during a 55-minute video message, Ayman al Zawahiri, who became the leader of al-Qaeda after the US killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, said he wanted to “raise the flag of jihad” across South Asia.
“al-Qaeda is an entity that was formed to promulgate the call of the reviving imam, Sheikh Osama Bin Laden. May Allah have mercy upon him,” said the 63-year-old Zawahiri.
He urged the Muslim world to “wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty and to revive its caliphate”. He also re-pledged loyalty to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar.