UN Monitors Attribute Deadly Red Fort Bombing to Al-Qaida Affiliate
United Nations — A United Nations terrorism monitoring team has attributed last year’s deadly Red Fort suicide car bombing to Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, warning that the group is expanding its regional networks through smaller and more decentralized cells.
The Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which reports to the U.N. Security Council, said the November attack that killed 11 people “was officially attributed to AQIS.”
The report said AQIS has continued to evolve from a fragmented organization into a broader regional terrorist network.
AQIS “continued to evolve from a fragmented group into a regional terrorist entity; it established logistics and financial networks, working in decentralised small, scattered cells instead of large units,” the report said.
The monitoring team also warned that AQIS is attempting to establish cells in Bangladesh and said terrorist threats across South Asia have intensified.
AQIS was founded in 2014 by then-Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and operates as the organization’s South Asian affiliate.
The monitoring team supports the Security Council committees responsible for sanctions involving Al-Qaida, Islamic State and the Taliban. Its experts track terrorist organizations and affiliates and provide assessments that can inform sanctions decisions.
An earlier report released in February said Jaish-e-Mohammed had been reported as linked to the Red Fort attack. The latest assessment more directly attributes the bombing to AQIS. The Security Council’s sanctions committee has previously described Jaish-e-Mohammed as having close ties to Al-Qaida.
Indian investigators have also focused on the alleged involvement of highly educated professionals in the attack. At least four doctors were arrested and accused of involvement in the bombing.
Authorities identified the suicide bomber as Umar-un-Nabi, an assistant professor of general medicine at a university in Faridabad, who allegedly drove the explosives-laden vehicle used in the attack.
The U.N. report also examined the activities of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, saying the group was restructuring and had created new divisions focused on Kashmir and Gilgit. (Source: IANS)
