M A I N   N E W S

Al-Qaida warns USA on Kashmir

New Delhi, October 14
Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida group on Sunday sought to link itself to the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir, warning the USA not to support India’s campaign against terror groups in the Himalayan state.

In a message threatening more suicide attacks on the USA and British interests in retaliation for the military strikes on Afghanistan, Al-Qaida spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith said its “storm of airplanes” would not end till the USA stopped “supporting Hindus against Muslims in Kashmir” and “the Jews in Palestine”.

Bin Laden and other members of the Al-Qaida are suspected of plotting the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington that killed thousands as well as a spate of anthrax cases discovered in the USA over the past week.

New Delhi has often accused Bin Laden of having links with leaders of several terrorist groups operating in Kashmir, including the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed, whose assets were frozen by the USA on Friday.

The Jaish was placed on the US Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, while the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen has been on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations since 1997.

Maulana Masood Azhar, who founded the Jaish in early 2000, is among militant leaders who, Indian intelligence officials say, are very close to Bin Laden.

Ghaith’s pre-recorded message, broadcast early Sunday by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite television network, was picked up and aired by several Indian television channels.

“The storm of airplanes will not be calmed, if it is God’s will,” he said, warning Muslims not to travel by planes and to avoid high-rise buildings in countries that are taking part in military strikes against Afghanistan.

He said the “storm will not calm” until the USA stopped “supporting the Jews in Palestine, until it vacated the Arabian peninsula, and until it stopped supporting Hindus against Muslims in Kashmir.

“Storms are not going to calm, especially the storm of planes until America withdraws in defeat from Afghanistan,” Ghaith said. The Al-Qaida would extend “full support” to the Taliban in facing the US-led strikes, he said.

Meanwhile, India on Sunday said the Al-Qaida’s warning to the USA not to support New Delhi’s campaign against terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir was proof of its involvement in promoting terrorism in the country.

“This is yet another indication of the role and involvement of Al-Qaida in promoting terrorism in various parts of the world, including in India,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Nirupama Rao said. Ms Rao emphasised that the Kashmir problem was not a “Hindu-Muslim issue” as Al-Qaida was trying to portray it.

“As far as the issue relating to Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, we would like to underscore the fact that this is not a Hindu-Muslim issue. A vast majority of our Muslim brethren in Jammu and Kashmir are firmly opposed to terrorism,” she said.

Ms Rao said such threats would only strengthen India’s support to the global campaign against terrorism. “Such statements further strengthen our resolute determination to resist terrorism.”

KUWAIT: Kuwait on Sunday decided to strip the spokesman of Al-Qaida group Sulaiman Abu Ghaith of his citizenship, a senior official said. The government decided at its weekly meeting “to drop his citizenship based on article 14 of the citizenship law which bans dual nationality, receiving military training in another state...”, the official said. IANS, Reuters