Vicky Nanjappa
New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) Al-Qaeda is seeking to expand its footprint in India and the subcontinent through its arm Al-Qaeda in the Sub-Continent (AQIS) by promoting a pan-Islamist approach, encouraging Bangladesh-based terror outfits to spawn splinter groups, and building tactical ties with groups across sectarian lines, according to security officials.
AQIS was launched in 2014 with the primary goal of focusing on India and the countries around it. However, the announcement was made at a time when the Islamic State was on top of its game, and this acted as a major deterrent to AQIS's ambitions.
Security analysts have observed a gradual but potentially dangerous shift in the AQIS strategy, with the outfit increasingly advocating pan-Islamism. The approach seeks to avoid open opposition to any particular sect or sub-sect and instead promote a broader, more inclusive ideological appeal to expand its support base.
An official said that this push being made by Al-Qaeda, especially in the sub-continent, is dangerous.
“AQIS was formed by merging several smaller regional jihadi groups from Bangladesh, Myanmar and India. However, these groups failed to expand significantly despite subscribing to Al-Qaeda’s ideology, largely because of stiff competition from the Islamic State. The latter does not subscribe to the concept of pan-Islamism and opposes various sects and sub-sects, making its approach less inclusive,” the official said.
Another official said that in the sub-continent, Al Qaeda wants to conduct the Africa experiment.
In Africa, where Al-Qaeda has established a strong presence, it avoided declaring war on particular sects and sub-sects. This enabled the outfit to forge closer ties with local groups, which in turn helped strengthen its network across the region.
“Al-Qaeda took a cue from the Islamic State, which committed the mistake of declaring war on every local sect and sub-sect. This shortened the Islamic State’s lifespan as a dominant force and led to its gradual decline in several parts of the world,” the official said.
The focus of Al-Qaeda is currently on the terror groups that are operating out of Bangladesh. The Jammat-ul Mujahideen (JMB) is its biggest ally. The JMB witnessed a split when a faction supported the Islamic State and then went on to become the Neo-JMB.
Al-Qaeda has been encouraging the JMB to create multiple groups such as the Imam Mahmuder Kafila (IMK), which has focused its activities in India.
Al-Qaeda wants groups such as the JMB, Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) to create more splinter groups and ensure that they subscribe only to the ideology that it preaches.
An Intelligence Bureau official said that this suits Al-Qaeda.
“Groups such as the JMB, ABT and HuJI-B already have manpower and operational strength. Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, will continue to act as an ideological mentor to these groups. Further, the creation of these multiple splinter groups will confuse the Indian agencies, while also giving the parent groups the deniability factor,” the official said.
Al-Qaeda feels that it needs to have this pan-Islamist approach. Such a strategy would have a much bigger draw for the outfit.
In the sub-continent, it has decided to create safe havens and also maintain tactical cooperation with Shia groups. These groups, in turn, help Al-Qaeda with both logistical and survival needs, officials say.
Officials said Al-Qaeda is seeking to establish a strong base in India. Its founder, Osama bin Laden, had built the outfit’s doctrine around targeting the ‘far enemy’, a reference to the West.
The outfit now wants to adopt a similar strategy in the subcontinent and has been urging its allies to pursue a more inclusive approach to widen their support base. It is keen to avoid the mistakes made by the Islamic State, which alienated potential allies by targeting various sects and sub-sects.
The Islamic State came with a bang, put on a brutal show, and even captured a wide audience in India. The outfit even radicalised over 20 youths from Kerala and convinced them to join the outfit in Afghanistan.
Many Indians, who had left the country to join the outfit in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, immediately became disillusioned.
The Islamic State is extremely violent, and the Indians who joined the outfit complained about discrimination and also about having to do menial jobs.
Al-Qaeda wants to change that and hopes that the inclusive approach that it seeks to take will work wonders for it in the sub-continent, with India being the primary target, an official said.
