Recent jihadist propaganda materials from the so-called Al-Bengal Media, a seemingly unofficial Islamic State mouthpiece, suggest an intensified ideological push to establish a wilayat (province) in Bengal. These efforts, rooted in IS's broader ambitions to maintain its global foothold despite territorial losses in Iraq and Syria, warrant a closer examination. Is an Islamic State Bengal truly in the making, or are these just remnants of a dwindling jihadist movement struggling to stay relevant?

Poster Propaganda: A Renewed Push?

Executive Summary: On March 7, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs designated 41-year-old Kashmiri militant Mohammad Qasim Gujjar as a terrorist. Gujjar has been involved in multiple high-profile attacks, financed and supplied arms to terrorists, and is a major recruiter for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. Gujjar has been especially effective at radicalizing relatives of deceased militants.

Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) — one of the most resilient regional affiliates of the transnational jihadist enterprise Al-Qaeda — issued multiple threats to carry out suicide bombings and other targeted attacks in India after controversial remarks about the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran were made by senior members of India’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

After years of hiding, Muhammed Farhatullah Ghauri, one of India's elusive yet most wanted Islamist ideologues, resurfaced with a series of audio-visual messages. Ghauri's sudden re-emergence on popular social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Telegram in early 2022 caught the attention of Indian security agencies. Since February, under the banner of Sawt-al-Haq (Voice of Truth), he has railed against the Hindu right-wing in India.

Pakistan has recently faced a renewed ethno-separatist militant surge targeting its financial and energy infrastructure. Four recent attacks indicate a resurgence within the multiple secessionist groups fighting for Baluchistan independence.

Almost six years after al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent’s (AQIS) formation as the regional subsidiary of the infamous transnational jihadist group, the organization is reportedly shifting its violent campaign to Kashmir and India. On March 21, in one of its key Urdu language magazines, AQIS claimed that the group would change the title of its long-running publication Nawa-i Afghan Jihad to Nawa-i Gazawatul Hind, signaling the geographical shift, mostly justifying the objectives behind its name and formation.