Al-Qaida Pamphlets Calling for Isis-Style Caliphate Seized in India

Pamphlets purportedly circulated by the Islamist extremist group al-Qaida calling for establishing an Isis-style caliphate have been seized in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Indian intelligence officials have found a seven-page document urging the Muslims to target the country's eastern neighbour, Bangladesh, to set up the caliphate, which would eventually expand to the Indian territories.

"If we manage to establish a Syria-like reign here [in Bangladesh] then Muslims from Assam, Arakan [former name of Burma's Rakhine State] and West Bengal too would be able to come here for hijrat [migration for religious motives]. Simultaneously, anti-India revolts would intensify in seven eastern Indian states. This would be a huge blow for India, one of the key non-Muslim states in the changed situation of the world," read the leaflets, which are written in Bangla, according to the daily Hindustan Times.

The veracity of the pamphlets could not be independently verified. However this has come within weeks of al-Qaida announcing its Indian 'branch' to carry out Islamic extremist activities.

Indian intelligence agencies in New Delhi are thought to have opened a probe into the findings.

This has also come a day after Tarun Gogoi, the chief minister of the northeastern state of Assam, said his state is frequently being targeted by militants belonging to al-Qaida and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, the group which allegedly plotted to assassinate Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

"Of late, Assam appears to have been targeted by fundamentalist organisations like Al Qaeda. Some operatives having links with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were recently arrested in Assam. There should be similar mechanism at the interstate level for West Bengal and North Eastern states so that issues of jurisdiction do not come in the way of dealing with insurgency and militancy," Gogoi said in an official press release statement as he was taking up the insurgency issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.