Dujana played important role in formation of al Qaeda in Kashmir, claims Zakir

Global terror outfit al Qaeda's Kashmir chief Zakir Musa has claimed  that slain commander of Lashker-e-Toiba Abu Dujana and his aide Arif Lilhari were affiliated to his outfit and are its “first martyrs" in the Valley.

Musa, who was recently named as head of 'Ansar Ghazwatul Hind' (the Islamic name of the local al-Qaeda group), said in a purported statement on Friday that Dujana and Lilhari, both of whom were killed by security forces on August 1 in Pulwama, had left the LeT to join the al Qaeda, a global Sunni Islamist terror organisation once led by Pakistan-based Osama bin-Laden.

In a 3:39 audio visual message posted on social networking sites by Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), propaganda channel affiliated to the outfit, Musa said the slain duo played “an important role” in formation of 'Ansar Ghazwatul Hind', which is believed to be an Al Qaeda affiliate group.

“Dujana and Arif were those two associates who after spotting righteous flag decided to ally with it. They played an important role in formation of Ansar Ghazwatul Hind and they had an honour to be among first martyrs of this Jihadi movement,” Musa said in the statement, his first since named as Kashmir’s al-Qaeda chief.

Deccan Herald could not independently verify the authenticity of the video message but police sources said the voice matched earlier audio clips released by Musa, who succeeded slain Burhan Wani last July as commander of Hizbul. He disassociated himself from the outfit after developing serious ideological differences with its leadership based in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in May this year.

State police chief Shesh Pal Vaid said there was no way of authenticating the audio clips but 'there were reports suggesting Musa and Dujana were close."

On Friday, a purported phone recording of Dujana and Arif surfaced online wherein the duo reiterated their allegiance to Musa minutes before they were gunned down by the security forces. In the audio, Arif purportedly says that flags of Pakistan shouldn’t be waved on his funeral and instead “flag of Tawheed” should be waved. He also repeatedly states that “we are with Al Qaeda”. Pertinently, Lashkar-e-Toiba did not issue any obituary statement for Dujana and Arif.

Training guns at militant leaders in Pakistan, Musa alleged: “When Dujana joined us after identifying truth, the so-called godfathers of Jihad based in Pakistan created lots of difficulties for him. Arif was also subjected to unprecedented difficulties after he joined us.”

"Those who were calling Dujana and Arif agents till yesterday are now paying them tributes. They don’t even feel ashamed,” Musa rued.

In the beginning of the audio visual message, Zakir and Dujana are seen together in several frames. “May Allah help us in taking forward in their (Dujana and Arif) mission,” the engineering college dropout-turned al-Qaeda commander added.