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Indian police arrest owner of pro-Islamic State Twitter account Indian police arrest owner of pro-Islamic State Twitter account
(about 4 hours later)
Police in India have arrested a man who ran a pro-Islamic State Twitter account that was followed by thousands of foreign jihadist fighters. Indian police have arrested a 24-year-old man believed to be behind an influential pro-Islamic State Twitter account followed by many jihadist fighters, officials say.
The arrest follows a Channel 4 News report on Thursday that identified a Bangalore businessman as the owner of the @shamiwitness account, which praised Isis advances in Iraq and Syria and those who came from abroad to fight for the Islamist group. The head of police in Bangalore, MN Reddi, said that Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a 24-year-old engineer, had admitted running the account and was being questioned by officers. Mehdi Masroor Biswas is alleged to be behind the Twitter account @ShamiWitness, which had 17,700 followers before it was shut down following a report by Channel 4 News on Thursday.
Biswas also used the account, which has been shut down, to tweet videos such as the execution of US aid worker Peter Kassig and the killings of dozens of Syrian soldiers. Tweets from the account contained extremist propaganda – including footage of executions – as well as information for would-be recruits and messages praising fallen fighters as martyrs.
His smartphone, which is thought to have been used to send most of the tweets, and his computer were seized when police raided a house in a prosperous Bangalore suburb on Saturday morning. “Incriminating documents, Islamic literature and many photos” were also found, an officer said. Police in Bangalore seized Biswas’s mobile phone, laptop and other documents for evidence when they raided the junior executive’s one-room apartment early on Saturday morning.
Police have “registered a case” against Biswas for abetting war against the state, although Reddi said that the man “never recruited anyone or facilitated any such activity in India” and had never travelled outside the country. LR Pachuau, police director general in the city, told a news conference that the arrest of Biswas, who works for an Indian food conglomerate, had followed “credible intelligence inputs”.
“He was particularly close to the English-speaking terrorists of Isis and became a source of incitement and information for the new recruits,” the police chief said. “He appears to have been only majorly active in the virtual world.” “He has confessed to the fact that he was operating [the] ShamiWitness Twitter account for the last many years … he used to work in the office in the day and became active on the internet late at night,” he said.
One Indian news agency said that Biswas could be charged with cyberterrorism and sentenced to life imprisonment. Pachuau said Biswas used to tweet “ferociously” after gathering information from TV and news websites on the situation in Iraq, Syria and the rest of the troubled region.
The Channel 4 report said that the Twitter account had almost 18,000 followers. It was one of the most influential supporters of Isis and a “leading conduit of information between jihadis, supporters and recruits”. Biswas was particularly close to English-speaking terrorists and had become a source of “incitement and information” for young people trying to join Isis.
Biswas told Channel 4 that he might have joined Isis but that his family were financially dependent on him. His father claimed that his son was innocent and had been framed. “Through his social media propaganda, he abetted [Isis] in its agenda to wage war against the Asiatic powers,” Pachuau said.
Isis has made extensive use of social media such as Twitter and YouTube for propaganda purposes and to recruit foreign fighters. The arrest will raise concerns about radicalisation among India’s population of 150 million Muslims. Social media has repeatedly been blamed for radicalising recruits and mobilising support for Isis.
Senior police officers and intelligence analysts in India are concerned about signs of sympathy for Isis among a small segment of young Muslims, some of whom have travelled to join the group. Estimates of how many vary from around 50 to more than 200.
A preliminary case of assisting war against the state has been registered against Biswas.
The Channel 4 report quoted Biswas as saying that he had personally not joined Isis fighters in Iraq and Syria because his family was financially dependent on him.
“If I had a chance to leave everything and join them I might have,” he was quoted as saying.
Biswas has denied any wrongdoing.
“I’ve not harmed anybody, I haven’t broken any laws of the country, haven’t waged any war against the Republic of India … I’ve not waged any war against any allies of India,” he told the channel.
His father, a retired electricity engineer, said Biswas was innocent. “You know being Muslim, we are easily identified as terrorists,” said Dr Mekail Biswas. “The days are so hard now. But I can tell you that my son … has done nothing wrong. If he has landed in trouble it is because some enemy is after him.”
Isis has established a reputation for extensive use of social media, though experts point out that it is often third parties who are not formally part of the group who play the biggest role in spreading propaganda. The group has produced a series of slickly made film clips, including some hour-long productions, as well as brutally graphic videos of executions of western hostages and captured Syrian soldiers.
“There are a growing number of youngsters who want to join jihad. It was there before but they went only to Pakistan. Now there is a global element,” one senior police officer dealing with terrorism in the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai told the Observer last month.
Four men from the northern Mumbai suburb of Kalyan travelled to Iraq to join Isis earlier this year. One was recently charged with terror-related offences after he returned from Iraq.
The total number of Indians who have tried to travel to the Middle East to fight with Isis is unclear as many local police forces prefer not to “criminalise” individuals by officially registering cases against them. Instead they rely on family pressure to “dissuade and deradicalise” them, the officer told the Observer.
Security analysts say India is facing a period of heightened terrorist threat due to internal, regional and global factors.
One fear is that Pakistan-based groups currently engaged in Afghanistan may look for new regional targets after the US ceases all combat operations next month. Al-Qaida announced the formation of a new affiliate in south Asia earlier this year. The veteran militant group has previously failed to make any inroads into India.