Al Qaeda Fights for Relevancy, Expands to India

Three Indian states with high Muslim populations are on alert after al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri vowed to bring Islamic law to all of India in a new video this week.

Zawahari said the group will bring islamic law to the subcontinent and "wage jihad against its enemies."

The expansion "is the fruit of a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mujahedeen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity," al-Zawahri said in the video.

Analysts say the message might be directed more at fellow jihadists in an attempt to prove al Qaeda is still relevant after being overshadowed by the success of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Al Qaeda "is struggling for its legitimacy in the eyes of the radicalized Muslim world," said Ajai Sahni, a top Indian security analyst with the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management.