In a video released by the Afghanistan-based militant outfit Al Qaeda, its chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has called for freedom fighters in Kashmir to inflict “unrelenting blows” on the Indian Army and the government in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
“(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,” Zawahiri said in the video, entitled “Don’t Forget Kashmir”.
Zawahiri called Pakistan’s army and government as “toadies of America” and says “mujahideen should avoid falling in Pakistan’s trap”.
“All the Pakistani Army and government are interested in is exploiting the mujahideen for specific political objectives, only to dump or persecute them later,” Zawahiri said.
Pakistan’s “conflict with India is essentially a secular rivalry over borders managed by the American intelligence,” the Al Qaeda chief said.
Zawahiri also said the “fight in Kashmir” is not a separate conflict but part of the worldwide Muslim community’s “jihad against a vast array of forces”. He called on “unnamed” scholars to propagate this point.
“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.
