Pro-Islamic State tweeter not involved in recruitment: Rajnath Singh

In a suo motu statement made in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Rajnath Singh said during interrogation Biswas denied recruiting any people for the terror group.

"The interrogation of Biswas has indicated that his activities were limited to posting and reposting of pro-IS material on his Twitter account and social media sites. He has denied having recruited any person for IS," he said.

"During interrogation Biswas disclosed that more than 60 percent of his Twitter account followers were non-Muslims from western countries and a majority of his Muslim followers were from the western countries, particularly the UK," the Home Minister said.

"Biswas started closely following the developments in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan through internet during his college days and has been active in the social networking sites since 2009," he said.

"Over a period of time Biswas started interacting with people in the social networking sites on matters related to 'Jihad'," the Minister said.

Biswas was arrested early Saturday following a British news channel on December 11 unmasking of the 24-year-old executive as a supporter of IS through social media and Twitter handle @ShamiWitness.

Source: Hindi News and Newspaper

Rajnath Singh, Netanyahu review cooperation in combating terror

Both the leaders also expressed their countries' keenness to strengthen ties, with Netanyahu emphasising that he "believes that relations between the two countries were poised for rapid development" following his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September in New York.

During that meeting, the Israeli Premier had said that "sky is the limit" in terms of prospects of cooperation between the two countries. Singh and Netanyahu discussed the regional situation and the evolving threats to the global communities from terror.

Singh said terror was a threat not only to countries like India and Israel but to the whole  world. Vowing to strengthen India's "very warm" relations with Israel, Singh on his first bilateral visit to Israel said, "India and Israel share very warm and cordial bilateral relations. We look forward to strengthen it further".

Fresh from his participation at Interpol General Assembly in Monaco, Singh told PTI that he also made a strong pitch for cooperation in the field of cyber security during his one hour conversation with the Israeli Premier. Singh was earlier widely quoted in the press for highlighting the use of social media for indoctrination by Jihadi elements and the urgent need to device ways to curb this practice through the use of internet.

He also made a special reference to Modi's "Make in India" initiative and invited Israeli industries, including the defence sector, to take advantage of the investment friendly policies adopted by the new government.

Expressing satisfaction at the growth in bilateral ties in a range of areas, including defence and agriculture, Singh noted that signing of agreements recently in the area of Homeland security had opened another sector for mutually beneficial cooperation.

Singh particularly emphasised on the importance of capacity building and training in this context.

"The future emphasis should be to build a hi-tech partnership befitting two leading knowledge economies," the Indian leader said.

Both leaders also agreed that the Free Trade Agreement under discussion between the two sides should also be signed early. Netanyahu briefed the Indian Home Minister on technologies that had been developed by Israel in areas such as aviation security, border protection and water harvesting.

Responding favourably to Modi's 'make in India's initiative, the Israeli leader said that his country is ready and willing to discuss transfer and development of technologies with India.

"Israeli industries, including the defence industries, could 'make in India' and thereby reduce costs of manufacturing products and systems developed by Israel," the Israeli Premier said.

The Israeli leader also expressed willingness to send a delegation from Israeli industries to visit India to explore manufacturing opportunities in different sectors.

Read more: News in Hindi and Newspaper