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AQIS’s jihad call post-Op Sindoor marks a strategic escalation, spotlighting India as a primary target in its ideological and regional campaign.
Image Source: Getty
In the aftermath of the 6 May 2025, ‘Operation Sindoor’ by India on the terrorist camps inside Pakistan‘s territory across nine targeted sites, the Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) declared jihad against India. The group avowed jihad as a religious duty under the ongoing situation between India and Pakistan. The declaration marks a serious escalation by the militant group’s rhetoric and strategic posturing.
AQIS's core leadership is believed to operate out of Pakistan with Osama Mehmood as its Emir, enjoying relative sanctuary in tribal belts and urban safe houses, often under the indirect protection or passive negligence of elements within Pakistan’s security apparatus. The group has long sought to recruit from the Pakistani faction of Deobandi institutions like Darul Uloom Haqqania, and Bahawalpur Madrasa and Salafi religious networks and madrassa circuits, particularly in Pakistan.
The group, in its recent official statement, condemned the strikes, blaming India for murdering innocent Muslims and violating Pakistan’s sovereignty. More critically, it framed the strikes as an exhibition of an alleged Hindu nationalist campaign against Islam, declaring violent confrontation as the only suitable response. The group urged the Muslims from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to respond to the call and join the AQIS brigade, while positioning itself as a guardian of the global Muslim Ummah and Pakistan’s territorial sanctity.
The group urged the Muslims from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to respond to the call and join the AQIS brigade, while positioning itself as a guardian of the global Muslim Ummah and Pakistan’s territorial sanctity.
This development, while not entirely exceptional, accentuates a repeated attempt by AQIS to relaunch itself in South Asia after numerous failed attempts and after killing former emir Ayman al-Zawahiri. It reflects an ideological campaign and serves as a strategic rhetorical and recruitment opportunity amidst shifting regional dynamics. The group seized the Indian airstrike as a rhetorical and recruitment opportunity. It further aims to portray India as a primary regional aggressor and to stir religious sentiment—a tactic it has persistently attempted through its publications, pamphlets, and propaganda videos. Despite sporadic propaganda drives and failed operational efforts—mostly in Pakistan and Bangladesh—AQIS has struggled to become a central player in the region’s jihadist theatre.
The recent Indian airstrikes appear to have provided AQIS with an opportunity to revive itself. The airstrikes reportedly dismantled launch pads and logistics used by groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), considered to be Pakistan’s strategic proxies against India. While Islamabad has denied the extent and intent of the Indian strikes, the response from jihadist groups has been loud.
The recent resurgence of AQIS rhetoric frames India as the principal antagonist, as AQIS seeks to spur transnational religious sentiment. This is a classic example of jihadist posturing, where geopolitical events are leveraged to construct a biased narrative of Muslim victimhood and justify militant responses. Recent declarations and propaganda reaffirm India’s rise as a prime target in AQIS’s ideological and strategic calculus, linking issues from Kashmir to Palestine and Myanmar. What sets this declaration apart from previous AQIS communiqués is its timing and strategic intent. Furthermore, AQIS’s renewed rhetoric serves as a challenge within the broader jihadist landscape. The group faces rivalry from the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which has outpaced AQIS in carrying out high-profile attacks and recruiting a large number of radicalised youth in the region. This inter-jihadist rivalry underlines the dynamic and contested nature of militant politics.
AQIS specifically called on Muslims in the subcontinent to rise against what it termed ‘Hindutva terrorism’.
The call for jihad was not limited to Indian Muslims alone. AQIS specifically called on Muslims in the subcontinent to rise against what it termed ‘Hindutva terrorism’. The statement openly lauded those who have taken up arms in defence of Pakistan’s territorial sanctity and the honour of Islam, attempting to mobilise support across multiple fronts. It further urged Muslim youth to reject nationalist identities and instead embrace the banner of the global ummah under jihadist leadership. This is an important ideological turn, for it seeks to conflate national security actions undertaken by a sovereign state with an imagined war on faith, an old method in the jihadist playbook that has often found resonance in disjointed societies.
For India, this development must be taken seriously. Although AQIS has had limited success in executing attacks on Indian soil, it has consistently attempted to establish ideological inroads, particularly through digital propaganda, social media networks, and covert contact with radicalised individuals. The current announcement could be used as propaganda material to inspire lone-wolf attacks or small-cell activation, especially in regions such as Kashmir, parts of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, and the Indo-Bangladeshi border areas.
Long-term efforts must focus on ideological counter-radicalisation, investing in de-radicalisation programmes, and building stronger inter-agency competencies to identify and disrupt threats before they metastasise.
India’s security establishment must therefore assess both short-term and long-term consequences. In the short term, the threat of radicalisation, incitement to violence, and online jihadist propaganda must be refuted through robust digital surveillance, coordinated intelligence gathering, and strategic community engagement. Long-term efforts must focus on ideological counter-radicalisation, investing in de-radicalisation programmes, and building stronger inter-agency competencies to identify and disrupt threats before they metastasise.
From a geopolitical standpoint, this statement also exposes the conflicts in Pakistan’s counter-terrorism narrative. While Islamabad has repeatedly claimed that it does not support transnational jihadist entities, AQIS’s presence and leadership base in Pakistan remain an open secret. The fact that AQIS feels confident enough to issue such an overt declaration from Pakistani territory raises questions about the efficacy and sincerity of Pakistan’s internal security mechanisms. It also reinforces India’s long-standing argument that Pakistan continues to promote and protect groups that pose threats to regional peace and stability.
This development should also serve as a wake-up call for regional cooperation. The AQIS threat is not confined to India alone. Bangladesh is already dealing with intermittent jihadist threats, and Afghanistan, under Taliban control, faces similar challenges. A region-wide intelligence-sharing and counter-terrorism framework is required to ensure a united front against Pan-Islamist terror groups. Moreover, India must continue to leverage international platforms, including the United Nations Security Council and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to isolate and sanction groups and individuals linked to organisations such as AQIS.
The AQIS threat is not confined to India alone. Bangladesh is already dealing with intermittent jihadist threats, and Afghanistan, under Taliban control, faces similar challenges.
Further, continued digital surveillance capabilities must be scaled up with a focus on dark net jihadist forums, Arabic and Urdu channels on Telegram, and AQIS's newer outreach in English and regional languages.
Finally, the ideological battle must be fought with equal urgency. Jihadist propaganda thrives in the vacuum left by weak state narratives and communal polarisation. India must ensure that its internal discourse does not lend credibility to the false narrative that Muslims are systematically under siege. Community leaders, religious scholars, and civil society actors must be engaged in to delegitimise violent extremism and uphold the constitutional values of pluralism and coexistence.
In conclusion, the AQIS declaration of jihad against India is both a propaganda manoeuvre and a strategic attempt to reinvigorate its influence in the region. While its operational capabilities remain limited, its ideological appeal and potential to inspire violence cannot be underestimated. India must respond with a multi-dimensional strategy that combines hard power with ideological resilience, intelligence coordination with digital literacy, and regional cooperation with strong domestic cohesion. The coming months will reveal whether this declaration remains mere rhetoric or translates into tangible threats, but the response must be proactive and enduring.
Soumya Awasthi is a Fellow, Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at Observer Research Foundation.
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Dr Soumya Awasthi is Fellow, Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation. Her work focuses on the intersection of technology and national ...
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