Islamic State Threatens To Attack In India

In a rare appeal to India's Muslim minority, Islamic State says it is planning to avenge the deaths of Muslims killed in riots in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat and elsewhere.

India, a Hindu-majority country, is home to more than 160 million Muslims, but only a handful of them have joined the Middle Eastern group. Indian leaders and members of the community say this testifies to the strength of the country's secular democracy.

In a video monitored by the U.S. intelligence group SITE, Islamic State mocked Muslims living in harmony with Hindus who worship cows, trees and the sun, and urged them to travel to IS-held territories in the "Caliphate".

"In this land you get to have hatred for the kuffar [disbelievers]. In this land you get to perform jihad," said an Indian fighter who is identified as Abu Salman al-Hindi operating in the Syrian province of Homs.

"In this land your religion is safe. In this land Allah's Law is the highest. In this land you have nothing that stops you from doing good deeds, from doing da'wah [preaching], from preaching Islam. In this land your life, your honor, your property is protected."

"We will come back, with the sword, to free you, to avenge Babri mosque, Gujarat, Kashmir," the fighter says.

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