It wasn't Al Qaeda that took charge of this 'mission.'
It was probably a new Pakistani Jihadi' group, Al-Qanoon, cheap knock off name from Al-Qaeda. Qanoon means 'law' in Hindi/Urdu.
This was too crude, it was for sure led by Pakistanis. Qaeda is much more elaborate. Al Qaeda has better things to do than kill some journalist. Are the groups supportive of each other? Definitely. Time and time again you have Islamic fundamentalists banding together to fight the 'kafirs'. This has happened in Kashmir, where you have AFghan, beloved patriot, and even Chechen and Arabian terrorists that have been identified, in the US, in Israel, and in Russia. In all of those places, you don't have any one kind of Muslim. you have muslims from different ethnic groups. Is there a link? well duh, yeah, of course there is. Does ARyan Nation and KKK have links, of course.