India prepared to deal with al Qaeda threat: Govt

New Delhi, Aug 6: The government today asserted that it was fully prepared to deal with any threat from al Qaeda and forces were alert to meet any eventuality.

Reacting to the new video released by al Qaeda yesterday, Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said in a statement here today that there was no confirmed news of any such threat till now.

''However, our forces and the state machinery are always ready to face such threat. Our forces are alert to avert any such attempt.

I want to appeal to the people of this country that they need not worry about such threat,'' Mr Jaiswal said.

According to media reports, the al-Qaeda warned in the video that India and US diplomatic missions were the terror network's ''legitimate targets''.

In the footage compiled by al Qaeda's production arm As-Sahab, an unnamed narrator, said, '' The targeting of Tel Aviv, Moscow and Delhi is also our legitimate right'' and accused India of killing more than 100,000 Muslims in Kashmir with US blessing.

The terrorist organisation has also singled out US missions in oil-rich Gulf Arab states as potential targets.

''We shall continue to target you at home and abroad just as you target us at home and abroad,'' Adam Gadahn, a wanted American member of al-Qaeda, said in the video, which was posted on LauraMansfield.Com, an American website which monitors terrorist groups.

''These spy dens and military command and control centres from which you plotted your aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq, and which still provide vital moral, military, material, and logistical support to the Crusade, shall continue to be legitimate targets for brave Muslims... unless you heed our demands,'' said Gadahn, an American convert to Islam who has been indicted for treason in the United States. He demanded that the crusade be stopped and Muslims be left alone.

In a message to the Americans and their &34;Crusader allies,&34; Gadahn said, ''The amount of respect we have for your international law is even less than the respect you hold for defined sharia (Islamic law), and our observance of it is comparable to your observance of sharia. How can we comply with a law which contradicts divine law in whole and in part?''Gadahn said.

''How can we recognise a law which states that the embassy or consulate is for all intents and purposes an inviolable fortress which the host country has no right to enter or monitor and when our sharia commands us to liberate every handspan of Islamic land occupied by the unbelievers?'' The one-hour 17-minute video was shown about two months after Gadahn warned in another Internet video that US President George W Bush should withdraw all his troops from Muslim land or face attacks worse than September 11.

UNI