US puts AQIS on terror list
The United States added Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, a regional branch of the global extremist network, to its terror blacklist yesterday, reports AFP.
The State Department designated AQIS a “foreign terrorist organisation” and its leader, Indian-born Asim Umar, a “specially designated global terrorist.”
Al-Qaeda, the jihadist movement founded by the late Osama bin Laden, has long been a banned group, but yesterday's order singles out a relatively new offshoot.
Bin Laden's successor, Egyptian Islamist ideologue Ayman al-Zawahiri, announced the formation of AQIS in September 2014 to carry the group's fight to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Since then, the group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly and sometimes spectacular attacks, which may explain the US decision to list it separately.
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