Karnataka hijab row and the other times Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has interfered in India

The Al Qaeda leader has repeatedly trained his guns on the nation — from announcing a branch of the terror group in 2014 to the present when he showered praise on a pro-hijab protester in Karnataka and asked Muslims to fight the perceived assault on Islam The hijab row, which had erupted in Karnataka after girls moved the high court demanding that they be allowed to wear the headscarves in school, was reignited on Wednesday evening when a video of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was released. The video by Zawahiri prompted the father of the pro-hijab protester, Muskan, to react, saying the comments of the terror outfit’s leader were “wrong”, and said he and his family were living peacefully in India. We are living peacefully in our country, we don’t want him to talk about us, as he is not related to us… it is wrong, it is an attempt to create division among us.” ‘Inflict unrelenting blows on Indian Army’ In 2019, the Al Qaeda chief released a video, calling for the “mujahideen in Kashmir” to inflict “unrelenting blows” on the Indian Army and the government in Jammu and Kashmir. Urges them to perform Jihad for Allah, not for the sake of “international criminals” pic.twitter.com/oGesHaa79E — Rahul Pandita July 10, 2019 He had said, according to American news website FDD’s Long War Journal, “I am of the view that the mujahideen in Kashmir – at this stage at least – should single mindedly focus on inflicting unrelenting blows on the Indian Army and government so as to bleed the Indian economy and make India suffer sustained losses in manpower and equipment. Zawahiri had said the formation of Al Qaeda’s South Asia wing was “a message that we did not forget you, our Muslim brothers in India”.