NEW DELHI, Feb 10: A senior Al Qaeda leader, who was claimed to have been killed last year, has resurfaced to warn India of swift retribution if it attacked Pakistan, but Indian officials said on Tuesday the threat, conveyed on a video through the BBC, was not new and in any case New Delhi was prepared to meet the challenge.

The video released by Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, said to be Al Qaeda’s military commander in Afghanistan, warns India that it will have to pay a heavy price if it tries to attack Pakistan.

He has referred to India’s Mumbai “humiliation” in the video in Arabic and said it will face more Mumbai-style attacks, BBC News reported.

In the video sent to the BBC office in Islamabad, Yazid, who was believed to have been killed in a US drone strike in August 2008, further says: “The Mujahideen will sunder your armies into the ground, like they did to the Russians in Afghanistan.”

Indian officials noted that the timing of the warning came at a time when US President Barack Obama said that Pakistan would have to ensure that it did not become a safe haven for terrorists and his envoy Richard Holbrooke was visiting the region.

Al Qaeda has previously proclaimed that the targeting of Tel Aviv, Moscow and Delhi was its legitimate right.

Responding to media queries about the warning, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony said the country was capable of facing any threat to its security coming from any quarter. He was speaking in Thiruvananthapuram.

“One thing I can tell you. Whatever threat coming from any quarter, our armed forces are always ready to face them,” Mr Antony said on the sidelines of a function in the state of Kerala.

Mr Antony, however, said he had not come across this particular report.

Commenting on Pakistan’s demand for more information from India to complete its probe into the Mumbai terror attack, Mr Antony said he had nothing more to add than what Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said on the matter.

“My senior colleague Mukherjee had already made India’s position clear on the matter. He had already explained this categorically. We are one government, one voice,” he added.

Meanwhile, police in Mumbai stepped up security for the lone survivor arrested in the Mumbai terror carnage. Indian reports said on Tuesday that Ajmal Kasab, who has been identified as a Pakistani citizen, is facing a death threat from the fugutive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s gang. Kasab is the target of “apparently a hit ordered by terrorist groups, who fear he is India’s most valuable piece of evidence,” a news agency reported.

It said the Mumbai police were increasing security for him. The police also said the charge-sheet against Kasab would be filed on Feb 24.

Up to 11 countries are also filing charges against him for the killings of their citizens.Reports said the information about the plot to kill Kasab is based on intelligence inputs received in January. The reports said a CCTV camera monitors him 24 hours and only a limited number of officers had access to him. No mobile phones are allowed inside his cell and his food is constantly checked. Even his court hearings are held inside the cell.

Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma, meanwhile, told NDTV that Pakistan must respond directly to the Mumbai dossier and that more delays and deflections would hurt Pakistan’s credibility.

In Mumbai, a three-member team from the Mumbai Crime Branch was headed for the United States on Tuesday to record the statements of investigators of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Its officers would be among the witnesses in the trial of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab.

Over 110 witnesses, including doctors, forensic experts, and railway policemen will depose in Kasab’s trial. The Crime Branch has also sought FBI’s help in getting proof for the calls made through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) by the terrorists to their handlers. The VoIP card used for the calls came from an American company.