Ayman al-Zawahiri, chief of terrorist organisation Al Qaeda, has urged Kashmiri Mujahideen to inflict ‘unrelenting blows’ on the Jammu and Kashmir government and the Indian Army, in a press release by the outfit’s media wing As-Sahab.
In a message titled ‘Don’t Forget Kashmir’, al-Zawahiri also bought attention to Pakistan’s involvement in fuelling cross border terrorism in the region.
“(I am)of the view that the Mujahideen in Kashmir- at this stage at least- should single-mindedly focus on inflicting unrelenting blows on the Indian Army and government, so as to bleed the Indian economy and make India suffer sustained losses in manpower and equipment,” al-Zawahiri said.
The terror outfit’s chief claimed that Pakistan, after ousting the Russians from Afghanistan, prevented the entry of the Arab Mujahideen into Kashmir.
“All the Pakistani Army and government are interested in is exploiting the mujahideen for specific political objectives, only to dump or persecute them later,” al-Zawahiri said.
“Pakistan’s conflict with India is essentially a secular rivalry over borders managed by the American intelligence,” he added.
al-Zawahiri called the ’fight in Kashmir’ a part of a worldwide conflict between the Muslim community and a host of other forces. He then called on ‘scholars’ to spread the word that supporting jihad is an ‘individual obligation on all Muslims’.
“You (the scholars) must clearly state that supporting the jihad in Kashmir, the Philippines, Chechnya, Central Asia, Iraq, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, Somalia, the Islamic Maghreb and Turkistan is an individual obligation on all Muslims, until sufficient strength is achieved to expel the disbelieving occupier from Muslim lands,” he said.
He, however, urged his terrorists to not target mosques, markets and other gathering places of Muslims in Kashmir.
“Esteemed scholars! It is your duty to preach to the Ummah that the Jihad against America in Afghanistan today is an individual obligation (fard ayn), just as the jihad against Russia was three decades earlier,” al-Zawahiri added.
PNN