NEW DELHI -- Al Qaeda said it has set up a new branch on the Indian subcontinent with a mission to "wage jihad" and establish an Islamic state across the region.

In a nearly hour-long speech posted online, Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of the terrorist group, said India's "secular democratic system had failed" and called for Muslims to rally for the creation of a caliphate.

India's government said it was working to check the authenticity of the video. A spokesman for the Home Ministry, Kuldeep Singh Dhatwalia, said several Indian states have been asked to "take necessary security precautions."

The Indian subcontinent, which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries, is home to some of the largest Muslim populations in the world. India, which is about 80% Hindu, has about 170 million Muslim citizens.

Al Qaeda's leaders have made statements about spreading the jihadist movement to India since at least 1996, according to Ajai Sahni, a top counterterrorism expert at the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi.