Click to play videoNew Delhi: Adam Yahiye Gadahn figures on the FBI list of most wanted al-Qaeda terrorists and he seems to have set the alarm bells ringing in New Delhi.
Gadahn, believed to be hiding in Pakistan, accuses India of killing more than one lakh Muslims in Kashmir and warns for the first time that Indian and US diplomatic missions will be targeted.
“We shall continue to target you at home and abroad just as you target us at home and abroad," Gadahn, a wanted American member of al-Qaeda, said in a latest video released by the terror network.
Taking the threat very seriously intelligence agencies are holding a high level meeting to evaluate the security measures.
And even as the origin of the video is also being studied, Indian missions are on high alert with host governments being asked to pitch in to beef up security.
So far, al-Qaeda and its band of Arab fighters have not directly targetted India leaving most of the terror strikes to their fellow jehadis like Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami. These outfits have mostly comprised Pakistani and Indian Muslims.
Some of the causes for concern is India's increasingly regular presence on al-Qaeda's radar. The terror group has used at least one Hindu convert in the UK for collecting intelligence about its intended financial targets in the US.
In 1998, al-Qaeda issued a fatwa under the banner of the International Islamic Front for Jehad. It referred to Kashmir and a Zionist Hindu war against Islam.
Four years later, al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden again described US support for India on Kashmir as a cause for anger among all Muslims. And last year after US President George Bush's visit to India, an Osama audiotape referred to Hindus along with Christians and Jews as part of a global conspiracy against Islam.
“We are concerned. We are all the time on the lookout for al-Qaeda's movements in India. We know that on a couple of occasions they have done a recce and gone back,” National Security Advisor M K Narayanan told CNN-IBN.
However, the Home Ministry doesn't want to press the panic button. “India is well prepared to deal with such terror attacks,” Minister of State for Home Affairs, Sriprakash Jaiswal said.
But counter terrorism experts warn against complacency. In a first of its kind, a joint Indian-Arab terrorist cell is being investigated for its role in the London and Glasgow attacks and experts suggest it's time that Arabs in India make their way onto the intelligence watch-list.
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