Batla House
Several protests have been held against the Delhi police for the Batla House encounter of 2008Reuters

There is yet another terror threat in India, this time from a group that is allegedly linked with the dreaded Islamic State.

Terror outfit Ansar ut Tawheed Fi Bilad Al Hind, best known for uploading a video of the Islamic State in Indian languages, has now issued a threat to avenge the killings of Indian Mujahideen (IM) members in the Batla House encounter of 2008.

Friday marked the sixth anniversary of the encounter of two terrorists by Delhi police inside a small house in Delhi's Batla House area, and this is the first time that any group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. So far, the encounter was seen as being a 'fake' attack on innocent Muslim youths in the Muslim-dominated area, by many activists and groups. 

AuT is an offshoot of the Indian Mujahideen, and is said to have a global reach, virtually acting as the Indian arm of the Islamic State by spreading its propaganda here.

Like their social-media-savvy counterpart in the Middle East, this terror outfit put out a series of tweets on Friday, some of which read – "Batla House Encounter. In Sha Allah We Will revenge".

It also posted a picture of the two terrorists who were killed in the encounter with a message – "Hereupon, We the mujahideens renew our pledge to avenge the martyrdom of Batla House encounter and other oppressed Muslims including our imprisoned brothers unless and until we establish Sharia law in India under the global Khilafah (Caliphate) wiping out all the man-made boundaries."

Also Read

The Twitter page of AuT is flooded with gory images of executions and beheadings by the Islamic State, and last month, the group had uploaded a propaganda video by the IS with subtitles in Hindi, Tamil and Urdu, in a bid to reach out to Indian youth.

The police are yet to confirm the veracity of the messages and are drawing parallels withThreatens to  the IM. "We are yet to trace the origin and veracity of the handle as proxy servers are in place but the message analysis has been given high priority. These messages are very similar to how IM first made its presence felt through a media blitzkrieg," a security official told The Times of India.

This new threat, which comes weeks after Al Qaeda announced its Indian wing, could have serious implications, given that the Indian Mujahideen had already carried out attacks on the second-anniversary of the Batla House encounter in 2010 at the Jama Masjid in Delhi.