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

Mehdi extremely radicalised; believes beheading correct: Sources

The 24-year-old, who was arrested on December 13 in Bengaluru, told interrogators that he believed in the extreme form of Islam and that one day the so-called caliphate or Islamic State will come into existence in the world.
  
"Mehdi described Indian Muslims as 'sarkari Muslims' who were incapable of fighting against government forces. He believes deeply that beheading of enemy and making abducted women sex slaves is nothing wrong," official sources quoted the statement of the West Bengal-born youth.
  
The electrical engineer-turned-jihadi propagandist, who was running the twitter handle 'ShamiWitness', told interrogators that since 2009, he has been following the political developments in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan andbecame a ISIS sympathiser running a propaganda campaign for it.
  
Mehdi said he was not aware of anybody joining ISIS and nor has he ever spoken to any fighter of the Islamic State with agencies now verifying those claims.
  
He said that one of the three Mumbai youths who are still in Iraq-Syria is handling a pro-ISIS twitter handle and posting sympathetic tweets, sources said.
    

Source: Hindi News and Newspaper