ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
The announcement of a new Al Qaeda franchise within the Indian subcontinent is unlikely to have a significant impact on the region, analysts said Thursday.
The new group was announced in an almost hour-long video apparently released online by Al Qaeda's chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on Wednesday.
SITE Intel Group, which monitors radical organizations and discovered the video, said Zaweri stated in the video that the new group will be called Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent. He also said it will be led by Asim Umar, the head of Al Qaeda's consultative council, known as a Shura, in Pakistan.
Islamabad-based security analyst Amir Rana said Umar, who is from the Pashtun ethnicity prevalent along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, is a close confidante of Zawhiri and designs much of Al Qaeda's literature.
"The Al Qaeda South Asia has been there for quite some time, however Al Qaeda has owned it now," said Rana. "It's because of the challenge Al Qaeda is expecting after the Daish's [the Islamic State] bid to make inroads into Pakistan."
Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune reported on Wednesday that the Islamic State group, which has declared a "caliphate" in parts of Syria and Iraq despite opposition from Muslim scholars, has been distributing promotional pamphlets in militancy-hit areas of northwestern Pakistan.
Daud Khattak, an expert on militancy for Radio Mashaal, which broadcasts in Pakistan, also said that the increasing strength of the Islamic State group could have forced Zawahiri's hand.
"The shifting of world's focus towards this new militant outfit, which is also a rival of Qaeda, forced Zawahiri to break the silence and made the announcement just to avoid being overshadowed," said Khattak, adding that the new announcement will be particularly concerning for Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
"However, al-Qaeda's main bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been severely damaged over the past decade which almost destroyed their command and control structure in the region," said Khattak. "Sympathy for militants in Pakistani society has considerably been decreased over the past few years partly because of large-scale casualties in bombing claimed by Taliban/other militant groups and partly because of the Pakistan military operations.
"So I don't think Qaeda will be able, at least in the near future, to cause a big blow to any region or country in the sub-continent."
www.aa.com.tr/en
