Another 3 pro-Islamic State Twitter accounts surface in India just after the Indian Intelligence closed the “ShamiWitness” Twitter account.
Intelligence services in India uncovered another three Twitter accounts supporting the Islamic State (IS) after capturing a man for managing a mainstream pro IS “ShamiWitness” Twitter account, revealed the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs.
The culprit is just a 24 years old named Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who promoted a popular propaganda in favor of the Islamic State via a Twitter Account from Bangalore in Southern India, according to sources in the Indian government. Bangalore is considered the digital capital of India.
As indicated by unnamed sources, the three newly discovered Twitter profiles are being run from Maharashtra, in western India. More sensitive details, like the identity of the individuals behind these accounts or the exact nicknames of the accounts have not been yet released for safety reasons.
Mehdi Masroor Biswas, 24 was taken in custody by the Indian law enforcement officers this Saturday for managing the Twitter account called ‘Shamiwitness’, clearly supporting IS. Apparently ‘Shamiwitness’ had over 17,000 adherents, two-thirds of whom were IS warriors in Iraq and Syria. Managing to gather more than two million views, the account is considered to be one of the leading IS Twitter profiles until now. The man said to be behind the Shami Witness posted hundreds of tweets every day, applauding the Islamic State’s progresses and deriding its foes.
According to police statements, Biswas used the account to enroll potential IS warriors and offered them guidelines on the most efficient way to pass Turkey and get to Syria. The man might be sentenced to life detainment in India for disseminating terrorist ideology. Bangalore’s police magistrate said officers were still making inquiries into the case.
The hardline Islamic fundamentalists from the IS group started fighting the Syrian government in 2012 and managed to take control of vast regions in Iraq and Syria this year. The radicals constantly use social networking for selecting new adepts worldwide. As indicated by the most recent UN data, about 15,000 foreign supporters have entered Syria and Iraq to join the IS or other terrorist movements.
The world’s third biggest Muslim population lives in India. So far, most of the Muslim Indians have avoided getting involved in worldwide Islamic causes. As such, police says it only officially recorded four men who traveled to the Middle East to battle for the Islamic State. One of them already returned to India is in police custody.
However Indian authorities acknowledged that it is rather difficult to count and identify the supporters of the Islamic State’s ideology.