India’s Chief of Al-Qaeda Maulana Asim Umar Killed

New Delhi, October 9, 2019:

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) on Tuesday said that the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has been killed last month in a joint operation by US and Afghan forces.

Reportedly, Maulana Asim Umar, alias Sanaul Haq from Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh, was appointed as the head of AQIS by Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri, in 2014.

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The statement of the NDS came through a tweet on Tuesday. It said, “NDS can now confirm the death of Asim Omar, leader of #Al-Qaeda in the #Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), in a joint US-Afghan raid on a Taliban compound in Musa Qala district of Helmand province on Sep. 23.”

According to reports, Umar was killed along with six other AQIS members, most of them Pakistani. The NDS also identified Umer as Pakistani, since he was carrying a Pakistani passport.

Umar went missing from India in 1995, three years after the Babri demolition, said reports.

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Indian agencies identified Umar after questioning of Sambhal resident Mohammad Asif and Cuttack-based cleric Abdul Rehman. They were arrested in 2014-15 by Delhi and Odisha police on suspicion of involvement with militants.

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