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| Indian police arrest engineer who they say glorified Islamic State on Twitter | |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| NEW DELHI — A computer engineer that police said ran a Twitter account glorifying the Islamic State terrorist organization was arrested Saturday and charged with violating Internet regulations and attempting to “wage war against Asiatic powers.” | |
| Police said Mehdi Masoor Biswas, 24, was arrested in an early morning police raid at his small apartment in the southern city of Bangalore, India’s information technology hub. | Police said Mehdi Masoor Biswas, 24, was arrested in an early morning police raid at his small apartment in the southern city of Bangalore, India’s information technology hub. |
| Police said he told them that he was using the Twitter handle @shamiwitness for many years. Biwas, who has been called a “keyboard jihadi”, has worked for a multinational food company for the past two years. He was exposed by the British television station Channel Four earlier this week. | |
| Even though Biswas was “more than a sympathizer” of the Islamic State, he did not recruit Indians into the mission, police said in Bangalore. | Even though Biswas was “more than a sympathizer” of the Islamic State, he did not recruit Indians into the mission, police said in Bangalore. |
| “As of now we know that he never recruited anybody, nor did he facilitate any such activity in India,” said M. N. Reddy, police commissioner of Bangalore during a news conference. “He never traveled outside India. He used the virtual world.” | |
| The son of an employee of the state electricity company in the eastern state of West Bengal, Biswas became interested in 2009 in radical Islamic literature, police said. He would retweet information from the region of Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, the Gaza strip and Israel, and tweet translations from Arabic literature, according to the police. | The son of an employee of the state electricity company in the eastern state of West Bengal, Biswas became interested in 2009 in radical Islamic literature, police said. He would retweet information from the region of Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, the Gaza strip and Israel, and tweet translations from Arabic literature, according to the police. |
| “He used to work in his office during the day, and became active on the Internet late into the night,” said Lala Rukum, director general of police in Bangalore. He would read all the breaking news related to ISIS and then “ferociously tweet” the news to his more than 17,000 followers, Rukum, said. | “He used to work in his office during the day, and became active on the Internet late into the night,” said Lala Rukum, director general of police in Bangalore. He would read all the breaking news related to ISIS and then “ferociously tweet” the news to his more than 17,000 followers, Rukum, said. |
| He earned a salary of about $10,000 a year from his day job, a typical post for many young Indian engineers who come to Bangalore and dream of working for global companies. | He earned a salary of about $10,000 a year from his day job, a typical post for many young Indian engineers who come to Bangalore and dream of working for global companies. |
| In an interview with a reporter from the Indian Express newspaper published Saturday, Biswas said by telephone that he had been framed and “somebody must have hacked my e-mail account.” | In an interview with a reporter from the Indian Express newspaper published Saturday, Biswas said by telephone that he had been framed and “somebody must have hacked my e-mail account.” |
| “I did tell Channel 4 that I believe beheading is part of Islam,” the Indian Express quoted Biswas as saying. “It does not mean I believe in beheading.” | “I did tell Channel 4 that I believe beheading is part of Islam,” the Indian Express quoted Biswas as saying. “It does not mean I believe in beheading.” |
| Another Indian engineer was arrested earlier this year by the police after he spent six months in Iraq with Islamic State fighters. But he spent most of his time doing odd jobs like cleaning toilets. | Another Indian engineer was arrested earlier this year by the police after he spent six months in Iraq with Islamic State fighters. But he spent most of his time doing odd jobs like cleaning toilets. |