NEW DELHI: The self-styled Islamic State (IS) is preparing to trigger a war in India to provoke an “Armageddon-like end of the world” according to a recruitment document of the terrorist group that was found in Pakistan, Press Trust of India reported on Wednesday.

The Indian news agency said it was quoting an investigative story published by the USA Today this week, which was based on the document that was obtained from a Pakistani citizen with connections inside the Pakistani Taliban.

“The document warns that ‘preparations’ for an attack in India are under way and predicts that an attack will provoke an apocalyptic confrontation with America,” the report said.

“Even if the US tries to attack with all its allies, which undoubtedly it will, the ummah (Muslims) will be united, resulting in the final battle,” it added.

The document was independently translated into English by a Harvard scholar and verified by several serving and retired intelligence officials, PTI said.

It quoted Bruce Riedel, a retired CIA official and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, as saying that striking in India would magnify the IS’s stature and threaten the stability of the region.

“Attacking in India is the Holy Grail of South Asian jihadists,” he was quoted as saying.

It seeks to unite dozens of factions of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban into a single army of terror, the daily said.

“It includes a never-before-seen history of the Islamic State, details chilling future battle plans, urges Al Qaeda to join the group and says the Islamic State’s leader should be recognised as the sole ruler of the world’s 1 billion Muslims under a religious empire called a ‘caliphate’,” it said.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2015

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