Al –Qaeda released Feb 10 a 20-minute video in Arabic warning India of many more Mumbai type attacks and put Pakistan in the spot.
The video warning, delivered to BBC office in Islamabad, was issued by a top al-Qaeda commander, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid who, Pakistan army has been saying, was killed last August in a US drone attack in Bajaur tribal agency.
Yazid is al-Qaeda’s military commander in Afghanistan. He is ranked behind No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri. He reiterated what the Taliban and other local terrorist groups had told immediately after Mumbai’s 26/11. ‘India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan’, he thundered.
These warnings coincided with the talks US special envoy on Pak and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke had with President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and Foreign Minister Qureshi on ways to eliminate terrorist havens in along Afghan-Pak border.
Yazid told India that Mujahideen would sunder your armies into the ground, like they did to the Russians in Afghanistan. “Mujahideen will target your economic centers and raze them to the ground:" he said denouncing the ban on militant groups in Pakistan following the Mumbai attacks and asked the people of Pakistan to rise up and overthrow the Zardari government.
Yazid is involved in a number of terror attacks, including 2008 Danish Embassy bombings, in Pakistan. He had also claimed the responsibility of assassinating former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He was last heard in August 2008 when he confirmed the death of al-Qaeda chemical-weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar.
EARLIER THREATS
Al Qaeda held out a threat in August 2007 again by video compiled by the outfit’s production arm, As-Sahab. It declared the targeting of Tel Aviv, Moscow and Delhi was its legitimate right.
The video had Adam Gaddahn, an American who had risen in the Al Qaeda ranks to become a spokesperson for the organisation, accusing India of killing more than 100,000 Muslims in Kashmir with US blessings.
In November 2006, airports across the country were put on high alert following threats from the Al Qaeda that it would blow up airports in Chennai, Kochi, Trichy, Thiruvananthapuram and Coimbatore. At that time, airport authorities received an anonymous letter warning of an attack and said about 10 Al Qaeda terrorists would break security cordons.
