Central agencies have issued alert across Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat after an Al-Qaeda offshoot issued a threat to carry out suicide attacks there to avenge affront to Prophet Muhammad. According to top sources in the Intelligence Bureau (IB), security agencies are ‘seriously’ looking into a threat letter received on June 6. The letter is alleged to have been issued by Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), an offshoot of the Islamic terrorist outfit notorious for its bombing of the World Trade Centre on September 9, 2001.
The threat came in the wake of the unsavoury remarks on Prophet Muhammad former BJP leader and spokesperson Nupur Sharma made on May 27 during the course of a TV debate that has snowballed into a raging controversy drawing sharp criticism globally.
“We shall kill those who affront our Prophet and we shall bind explosives with our bodies and the bodies of our children to blow away the ranks of those who dare to dishonour our Prophet,” AQIS said in the letter. “The saffron terrorists should now await their end in Delhi, Bombay, UP and Gujarat.” Saying that they would like to die if they “do not avenge” their “beloved Prophet,” the outfit further said in the threat letter. “They shall find refuge neither in their homes nor in their fortified army cantonments.”
Clearing referring to “saffron terrorists” and “Hindutva terrorists occupying India,” the Islamic terrorist outfit said, “We shall fight for the dignity of our Prophet, we shall urge others to fight and die for the honour of our Prophet.”In view of the threat, security agencies have been put on high alert in Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat where the terror outfit has threatened with launch suicide bombing “for the honour of the Prophet”. According to sources, they
have been asked to tighten their vigil at airports, metro, railway stations and market areas.
The AQIS threat letter referred to remarks made by BJP leaders Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, who have been sacked by the party high command.
Reacting to the AQIS threat, Shiv Sena RS MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said in a tweet on Wednesday, “Threats from Islamist terror groups such as Al Qaeda should be unequivocally denounced by these Middle East nations as well. Respecting religious sentiments is one thing, issuing threats based on it (is) another. No religion is so fragile that words of a few can bring down their faith.”
Several Muslim countries have flayed India for unwarranted remarks on Prophet Muhammad in recent days. Apart from Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Afghanistan, countries like Indonesia, the UAE, the Maldives, Jordan, Bahrain and Libya have also come together in their criticism putting India in a tight spot. While Qatar, Iran and Kuwait went as far as summoning Indian ambassadors in their respective countries on June 5, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), with 57 member states, also slammed India over the remarks.
