Al-Qaeda announces new branch in Indian subcontinent

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri launched a new branch of the global Islamist extremist movement September 3 to expand its struggle in the Indian subcontinent. Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where its surviving leadership are thought to be hiding out, but Zawahiri said “Qaedat al-Jihad” would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Since the death of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda  has been somewhat eclipsed, first by its own offshoots in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and now by the so-called “Islamic State” fighting in Iraq and Syria. But, in launching “Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian subcontinent,” Zawahiri may be attempting to recapture some of the limelight for his group and to exploit existing unrest in Kashmir and Myanmar.

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