Al-Qaeda's chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was rumoured to be dead in 2020, resurfaced in a nine-minute video released by the terror outfit's As-Sahab media on Tuesday (5 April), has jumped into Karnataka Hijab row.

Zawahiri’s video was verified by SITE Intelligence, an American non-governmental organization that tracks online activity of white supremacist and jihadist outfits, reports Hindustan Times.

In the video titled ‘the Noble Woman of India’, al-Zawahiri chimed into the hijab row which originated in Karnataka and praised Bibi Muskan Zainab Khan, a college student from Udupi who took a prominent part in pro-hijab protests and became known for shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ slogans to counter a group of boys who were chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’.

“May Allah reward her for showing a moral lesson to sisters plagued by an inferiority complex via-a-vis the decadent Western world,” al-Zawahiri was quoted as saying in a Print report.

The Al-Qaeda chief reportedly said that Indian Muslims should ‘react to this oppression'. He has supposedly stayed on top of developments in India through social media, and said he was so impressed with the video of Muskan Khan that he penned a poem for her. Calling her ‘sister’, al-Zawahiri said he was moved by her raising 'cries of Takbeer'.

The terror outfit chief also accused the “the pagan Hindu democracy of India” for seeking to “oppress Muslims”.

“It is exactly the same tool of deception the true nature of which was exposed by France Holland and Switzerland when they banned the Hijab while allowing nudity,” he added.

It should be noted that the Karnataka High Court had upheld the ban on wearing Hijab in the educational institutions.

The petitioners in the Hijab case have challenged the Karnataka High Court’s ruling in the Supreme Court.