SRINAGAR, July 13: A man claiming to represent Al Qaeda said the network had set up a wing in Kashmir and appealed to Indian Muslims to take up jihad, an Indian news agency reported on Thursday. An official said the government was taking the claim “very seriously.”

In a statement read over the phone to Kashmir’s Current News Service, a man who identified himself as Abu al-Hadeed reportedly said: “Whosoever has carried out the attacks in Bombay, we express our gratitude and happiness.”

As word of the announcement spread, a senior intelligence official in Kashmir said the call had been placed from a local landline phone that authorities were trying to trace.

“Our immediate effort is to locate the caller and ascertain the authenticity of the claim,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media. “The government is taking it very seriously.”

Al-Hadeed said the Bombay bombings “are a reaction to what is happening to the minorities, especially Muslims in India,” the news service said.

There have been allegations that Islamic militants fighting to wrest predominantly Muslim Kashmir from India have ties to Al Qaeda, but Thursday’s statement is the first time Osama’s network has claimed to have spread to Indian territory.

What role, if any, an Al Qaeda wing in Kashmir would play was unclear.

“We shall be giving out statements regularly and will soon announce our aims and objectives,” al-Hadeed was quoted as saying.

He identified the network’s Kashmir leader as Abu Abdul Rehman al-Ansari.—AP