Al-Qaida's India entry puts Intelligence Bureau on alert

New Delhi: The Intelligence Bureau issued a security alert to several states on Thursday after Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahri announced the formation of an Indian branch of his militant group, two television networks said.

Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where its surviving leadership are thought to be hiding out, but Zawahiri said "Qaedat al-Jihad" would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

"This entity was not established today but is the fruit of a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mujahedeen in the Indian sub-continent into a single entity," he said.

But, in launching "Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian sub-continent," Zawahiri may be attempting to recapture some of the limelight for his group and to exploit existing unrest in Kashmir and Myanmar.

"It is an entity that was formed to promulgate the call of the reviving imam, Sheikh Osama bin Laden, may Allah have mercy upon him," Zawahiri said.

Govt takes note of Al-Qaeda video,its authenticity to be verified : MHA sources

Zawahiri called on the "umma," or Muslim nation, to unite around "tawhid," or monotheism, "to wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty and to revive its caliphate."

The video is produced by Al-Qaeda's usual media arm, the As-Sahab Media Foundation -- "The Cloud" -- and SITE reported that it had been widely distributed on jihadist online forums.

In it, Zawahiri singles out Assam, Gujarat and Kashmir -- Indian regions with large Muslim populations -- along with Bangladesh and Myanmar, as territories targeted by the new organization.