Al-Qaida affiliate calls to hit Army convoys in J&K

Zakir Musa, the head of Al Qaeda-affiliated Kashmiri outfit Ghazwat-ul-Hind, has reportedly asked “able” Indian youth to attack military convoys with petrol bombs in order to make the Army’s movements difficult.
While urging ‘fighters” in Kashmir to “rise above group and hero worship,” Musa in a video of his speech released on Telegram on Sunday, asked them to also target companies associated with the Indian government as well as foreign firms seeking investment opportunities in India, the SITE Intelligence Group reported.
Musa’s call for attacks on Indian Army, which he described as “the primary enemy of our jihad” , coincided with the Islamic State terror group owning up to the killing of J&K police constable Farooq Ahmed Yatoo on Sunday, via its Amaq News Agency. A poster titled “The War Has Just Begun” was put out by Amaq on Monday, showing a rifle allegedly taken as a war spoil and warning of more strikes.
While a home ministry official insisted that IS as an organisation did not exist in the Valley, intelligence reports have repeatedly warned of growing radicalisation of Kashmiri youth, inspired by the online jihadi propaganda of global outfits like IS and Al Qaeda. “There are small groups of self-radicalised youths here and they are plotting strikes to liberate Kashmir through jihad. However, there is no cohesiveness among such individuals and groups,” said an officer.
One such group is Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM), with a handful of cadres in central and south Kashmir. The initial probe into constable Yatoo’s killing point to the involvement of TuM cadre Esha Fazali. “While IS has claimed the attack, this needs to be authenticated. There is no perceptible presence of IS in the Valley, though there may be some lone wolves influenced by IS ideology,” J&K DGP S P Vaid told TOI on Tuesday.
IS, incidentally, faces tough competition from Ghazwat-ul-Hind in Kashmir. The latter’s chief Musa, in a 15-minute video of his Urdu speech titled ‘Kashmir will Become Darul-Islam, said: The first enemy of our jihad is the Indian Army. It is important that we attack its convoys and make its movement difficult. In this action, every able youth can join and by using petrol bombs can participate in such actions”.