An operative of the Al-Qaeda in the Subcontinent (AQIS) identified as Mohammad Usman is currently lodged in a jail in Pakistan’s Lahore, the Uttar Pradesh police said. He is wanted by the Delhi police and details relating to him reveal that he is a resident of Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh.
This is a serious development since this is the second high-ranking cadre of the AQIS who hails from Uttar Pradesh. When the AQIS was formed in 2014, the outfit chose a UP resident to head its operations. Asim Umar referred to as Shaikh Umar too was a resident of Sambhal. He is said to have recruited Usman, investigations have shown.
The Sambhal Connection
The very fact that two of the outfit’s top leaders hailed from Sambhal says how deep-rooted the problem of Jihad is. Sambhal was recently in the news after violence had broken out following a court mandated survey that was conducted at the Jama Masjid.
Following the violence an assessment by the Intelligence agencies suggested that this could not be treated as a one-off incident and there is a clear pattern to it.
The AQIS was a very ambitious project of the Al-Qaeda. It was meant to operate in the sub-continent and the leadership had massive plans. They wanted to control countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Moreover, they had the backing of the Taliban, which they felt would help them achieve their goal easily.
For such an important project, it was important to have a strong leader. The Al-Qaeda which was then headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri chose Asim Umar a resident of Sambhal to lead the AQIS.
The revelation relating to Usman becomes interesting since he too hails from the same place as Umar did. Umar it may be recalled was killed in a US air strike in Afghanistan. Since then the outfit has been leaderless and runs a small-scale operation with some backing from the Taliban.
The police will now look deeper into the Sambhal link to the Al-Qaeda. It could have been one of the main recruiting hubs for the Al-Qaeda. It is a communally sensitive zone in UP and the recent violence suggested just that.
An Intelligence Bureau official tells Organiser that Sambhal’s links not just to the Al-Qaeda, but other elements such as the D-syndicate needs to be probed. There is a chance that there are several modules and cells in this part of Uttar Pradesh. If not checked, then it could go on to become a major problem for national security, the official also noted.
Know who is Asim Umar
Asim Umar was a little-known name. When his name was announced as the head of the AQIS, everyone thought that he originally hailed from Pakistan. However later on his roots were traced to Sambhal in UP.
The very fact that that the Al-Qaeda decided to choose Umar to head the outfit only singled how important India was to the outfit. Furthermore, they sought to exploit the Muslims particularly in UP and probably had thought of setting up their biggest module in the state.
The first time that the agencies got wind of his name was when a SIMI operative by the name Haider Ali was questioned in connection with the Patna blast. He only told the agencies back then that he was reporting to a person called Umar, but he did not say anything about his nationality.
Umar left India in 1989. However for a decade he was in and out of the country. It was in the year 1995 he decided to take stay back in Karachi permanently.
He took shelter in Pakistan and from there he oversaw the operations of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
Following the revelation by Haider, the IB officials kept a close tab on Umar. They were watching his videos and that is when they realised that his Urdu was very Indian like.
Umar had studied in Kashmir and that is where he decided to join a terror outfit. The first outfit that he joined was the Harkat-ul Mujahideen. Following his shift to Karachi he taught at the Jamia Uloom e Islamic. His thought process was fierce and he preached violent jihad against Bharat. This is what caught the attention of the Al-Qaeda which then decided to rope him in. His first role in the Al-Qaeda was to head the Sharia council.
The India connection
Umar shuttled between Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, he was constantly in touch with people in Uttar Pradesh. He would preach and radicalise them and urge them to join the Al-Qaeda.
Over the years, he managed to create a strong module in UP. He was instrumental in ensuring a massive shift of the SIMI cadres to the Al-Qaeda after the organisation collapsed. While some became part of the Indian Mujahideen, others joined the Al-Qaeda under Umar.
A question that he would always ask the Indian Muslims was, ‘why is there no storm in your ocean.’ This had become a popular line, and many took his words and promised to undertake violent jihad.
He would always ask the Muslims from Bihar why there is not a single Mujahideen in the state. During a talk he was giving to a select set of Muslims from Uttar Pradesh, he had asked, ‘is there not one mother in UP who can sing a son to her son urging him to become a Mujahideen.
The Sambhal link will be thoroughly probed. It is being used as a factory to produce jihadis and anti-national elements. The violence in Sambhal clearly indicated a Pakistan. It was found that the violence was not sporadic but planned. It was part of a large conspiracy so that the communal violence could spread across the country. Sambhal could well be the ISI’s playground to incite Muslims to undertake incidents of communal violence with the sole intention of disturbing harmony across the country.
