Ayman al-Zawahri's announcement of "al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent" comes amid growing attacks on Muslims in Northeast India as well as Burma and Bangladesh.
Srinagar and other towns in India-administrated Jammu and Kashmir are under curfew following unrest over the killing of four protesters by the Border Security Forces.
India is protesting what it calls an incursion by some 30 Chinese troops from across the Line of Control in the Himalayas, while Tibetans charge stepped up repression.
A new pipeline that would link Iran to China via Pakistan, bypassing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, would pass through the insurgent regions of Baluchistan, Kashmir and Xinjiang.
A Kashmiri militant who received the death penalty for the 2001 attack on India's parliament was executed after India's president turned down his plea for clemency.
