Opinion | The Inner Workings Of Al Qaeda's 'India' Branch, Now Linked To 2025 Red Fort Blast

Updated: Sep 04, 2026 17:30 pm IST Published On Sep 04, 2026 17:22 pm IST Last Updated On Sep 04, 2026 17:30 pm IST

Published On Sep 04, 2026 17:22 pm IST

Last Updated On Sep 04, 2026 17:30 pm IST

On November 10 last year, a bomb blast in front of the Red Fort in Delhi killed 15 people, marking the biggest terrorist attack in the national capital in over a decade, since a blast outside the Delhi High Court in 2011. The latest blast was a security failure, especially in Delhi. However, the events leading to it - back-to-back raids in Faridabad and the seizure of explosives and weapons - averted a major tragedy. After all, a terrorist has to succeed only once.

The latest United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Report, released last month, brings an al-Qaeda-linked group into the picture. The report has held al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) responsible for the attack. A National Investigation Agency (NIA) chargesheet said the Anzar Ghazwat ul-Hind (AGuH), an offshoot of AQIS, was primarily responsible for the attack. AGuH has been responsible for several attacks in Jammu & Kashmir, and even in Punjab.

Born out of Necessity

Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent was formed due to the external pressure the core al-Qaeda leadership faced in 2014. Its then-chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, established a Pakistan-based affiliate of the organisation in September 2014, which would focus on operations in India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. It was established as "Qaedat al-Jihad fi'shibhi al-qarrat al-Hindiya" (al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent). The announcement came two months after Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi's Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) established a so-called "Caliphate".

The surge in ISIS's popularity, alongside the deaths of Osama bin Laden (2011) and Taliban founder Mullah Omar (2013), severely weakened al-Qaeda's influence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Having pledged allegiance to the Taliban and abstained from operating in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda viewed Pakistan as an attractive base for expansion, while identifying India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar as key areas to maintain core leadership dominance due to rival group activity elsewhere.

Ahmad Farooq, the founding deputy emir of AQIS (left), and AQIS' founding emir, Asim Umar (right), as shown in an As-Sahab AQIS video released in October 2021. (ctc.westpoint.edu)

AQIS was formed by jihadi fighters from various groups in Pakistan, including the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an ideological progeny of al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI), Harkat ul Mujahideen (HuM), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Jundullah, Indian Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan........

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