‘al-Qaida wants to portray Modi as enemy of Islam’

al-Qaida wants to portray Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an enemy of Islam, a well-known American counter-terror expert has said.

Leader of the militant group Ayman al Zawahiri Zawahri announced the formation of an Indian branch of his group on Thursday.

In a 55-minute video posted online, Zawahiri said al-Qaeda would spread Islamic rule and ‘raise the flag of jihad’ in Bangladesh and other South Asian countries.

“This video, the first from Zawahiri this year, should be taken very seriously. al-Qaeda wants to portray Prime Minister Modi as an enemy of Islam,” Times of India quoted an ex-CIA analyst Bruce Riedel, who is considered to be one of the US’s top experts on counter-terrorism.

Riedel said: “From its base in Pakistan and with its close links to Lashkar-e-Taiba, al-Qaeda is a dangerous menace to India.”

Reiterating that the new Indian government should take the threat very seriously, Riedel said New Delhi should increase its counter-terrorism co-operation with the US and Afghanistan.

After the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, counter-terrorism cooperation between India and the US has increased significantly.

The US, however, is yet to verify the authenticity of the video or the creation of a new wing of al-Qaeda.

“We have not been able to verify that yet. Obviously, we are looking to see if there is more information we can get about this here,” US State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters at her daily news conference.

She reiterated that the US remains committed to dismantling al-Qaeda anywhere that it poses a threat to the US and make sure that it does not renew its threat to America.