According to news reports, intelligence agencies have stumbled upon a video where head of al-Qaeda's India wing is urging the local terror modules and sleeper cells to carryout public beheading of tourists in the national capital.
An alert has been sounded across the city by Delhi Police' Special Branch.
However, security experts have dismissed the threat emanating from the video.
According to them, the video is an attempt to recruit new operatives and expand base in the sub-continent.
Al-Qaeda in India came into prominence in early September when Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of al-Qaeda, announced the establishment of a new branch in the Indian subcontinent in a 55-minute video posted online.
During the announcement, Zawahiri stated that it had taken two years to gather various Jihadist factions into the new group, and introduced Asim Umar, a former commander in the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, as its Emir.
The announcement also introduced the group's spokesman, Usama Mahmoud, who praised militant commanders like Amjad Farooqi, Ilyas Kashmiri and Hassan Ghul. Farooqi was killed by Pakistani security forces. Kashmiri and Ghul were killed by US drone strikes in Pakistan.
In October, a militant group linked with al-Qaeda that operates from northern parts of Pakistan called for a waging Jihad in Jammu and Kashmir.
In a recorded video message, the group, Ansar ut-Tawheed Fi Bilad al-Hind
(Supporters of Islamic Monotheism in India), an organisation that emerged sometime in the summer of 2013, has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent chief Asim Umar and Afghan Taliban head Mullah Omar in a message issued on Friday.
Later in the month, in its English-language mouthpiece, Resurgence, al-Qaeda has called upon Indian Muslims to regain their lost glory by visiting “Free Afghanistan” and then return to India to engineer jihad.
“The time has come for the Muslims of India to play a proactive role in the Jihad in Afghanistan and benefit from the experience of forty years of Jihad so that they may build a better future for coming generations,” the article said.
The article then went on to say- “sooner or later, the Muslims of India too will come to the realisation that their future is inextricably linked to the success of the Afghan Jihad”.
Britain issues global travel warning for its citizen
The warning comes in the back drop of a similar worldwide travel warning issued by Britain's Foreign Office that warned of attacks on British citizens.
However, the threat was termed as a generalised threat to Britons and is not based on specific intelligence inputs.
The warning states: “There is considered to be a heightened threat of terrorist attack globally against UK interests and British nationals from groups or individuals motivated by the conflict in Iraq and Syria. You should be vigilant at this time.”
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