Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Bombay Bombings

According to this AP account, 350 people have been detained by Indian authorities for questioning in the investigation into the Bombay train bombings two days ago. Although they are still trying to verify the authenticity of the message, an operative claiming to represent al Qaeda has taken responsibility for the attack. The AP explains (quotes and other interesting details about the tape are in bold and red):

The detentions [of 350 people] came as a man claiming to represent al-Qaida said the terror network had set up a wing in Kashmir and praised Tuesday's bombings.

A senior intelligence official said the government was taking the claim seriously and authorities were trying to trace a call the man made to a Kashmiri news service. ...

There have been allegations that Islamic militants fighting to wrest predominantly Muslim Kashmir from India have ties to al-Qaida, but Thursday's statement would be the first time Osama bin Laden's network claimed to have spread to Indian territory. ...

Investigators were looking into a possible link with Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, an Islamic militant group based in Kashmir, said P.S. Pasricha, police chief of Maharashtra state. Lashkar has in the past employed near-simultaneous explosions to attack Indian cities.

A spokesman for Lashkar, Abdullah Ghaznavi, denied the group was involved.

The purported al-Qaida member, who identified himself as Abu al-Hadeed, appealed to Indian Muslims to take up jihad and said ''whosoever has carried out the attacks in Bombay we express our gratitude and happiness.'' It was impossible to verify his identity or his claims independently.

The train bombings ''are a reaction to what is happening to the minorities, especially Muslims in India,'' the man said in a statement read over the phone to Kashmir's Current News Service.

''We appeal to Muslims in India to fight for freedom and Islam and choose jihad as their way to achieve freedom and establishing Islamic ways,'' he was quoted as saying.

The Current News Service said the man spoke in Urdu, the language of most Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, though he identified himself with an Arabic name.

''Today a unit of al-Qaida has been established in Jammu and Kashmir which shall henceforth be called al-Qaida Jammu and Kashmir,'' the man said. ''We shall be giving out statements regularly and will soon announce our aims and objectives.'' ...