India could be key target of new al-Qaeda chief

He is under pressure to prove that al-Qaeda still counts:

INDIA: India could be one of several new theatres targeted by al-Qaeda’s newly-appointed chief to establish his authority over the jihadist group and its allies, intelligence sources say.

The appointment of Osama bin-Laden’s long-standing lieutenant to lead al-Qaeda was made public on Thursday, in a three-page online communique, which announced “the undertaking of responsibility of the amir [supreme leader] of the group by Sheikh Dr. Abu Muhammad Ayman al-Zawahiri.”

Perceived by many within the jihadist leadership as aloof, even arrogant, the 1959-born former Egyptian surgeon is under intense pressure to demonstrate that al-Qaeda has survived bin-Laden’s killing by the United States special forces last month.

Long-standing problems between the Egyptian jihadist circles led by al-Zawahiri and their Yemeni and Saudi counterparts, though, mean he could turn to Pakistani jihadists to execute his plans. Fakir Muhammad, a top jihadist commander who has repulsed multiple military campaigns to retake his strongholds in northwest Pakistan’s Bajaur agency, is among al-Zawahiri’s closest allies.

Fears that al-Qaeda will choose India as a theatre to expand have been mounting since last summer, when al-Zawahiri’s former deputy released an audiotape claiming responsibility for the 2009 bombing of a cafe in Pune.

Thursday’s communique is believed by experts to have followed a meeting of al-Qaeda’s 10-member General Command, though it is unclear whether its scattered members communicated through couriers or cast their votes online.

The statement also called on “the Muslim people to rise and continue resistance, sacrifice and persistence [until] full and anticipated change comes, which will not be achieved except by the Islamic nation’s return to the law of its Lord.”

The Hindu