Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri circulates video, dispelling rumours of his death
- The rare footage of the reclusive man who was Osama bin Laden’s No 2 is the first proof in months that he is alive
- Some believe Al-Zawahri is in Afghanistan, and his video means headaches for the ruling Taliban, which has promised to fight terror groups there
A rare video has appeared of al-Qaeda’s chief praising an Indian Muslim woman who in February defied a ban on wearing the traditional headscarf, or hijab. The footage is the first proof in months that the man who was once Osama bin Laden’s No 2 is still alive.
Rumours of the death of Ayman al-Zawahri have persistently circulated, but in a video released on Tuesday and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, the reclusive al-Qaeda chief praises Muskan Khan who defied a ban on the wearing of the hijab in schools in India’s southwestern state of Karnataka.
Two months ago, Khan garnered attention when she publicly shouted “God Is Great” as Hindu radical students jeered at her over the Islamic headscarf. In March, the court in India’s Karnataka state upheld the ban, outraging civil activists and Muslim groups in India and elsewhere.
A previous video of al-Zawahri, which circulated last year on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, did not reference the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August. It did mention the January 1, 2021 attack that targeted Russian troops on the edge of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa.
02:10
School hijab ban triggers clashes between Hindu and Muslim students in India’s Karnataka state
“He could still be dead, though if so, it would have been at some point in or after Jan 2021,” SITE director Rita Katz tweeted following al-Zawahri’s September 11 anniversary video.