3 from MP detained for interaction with @ShamiWitness: Report

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh counter terrorist group (CTG) and Anti-Terrorist Squad (MPATS) have reportedly rounded up three youths, from Jabalpur district, who followed and interacted with ISIS propaganda Twitter account @ShamiWitness run by Mehdi Masroor Biswas.
The trio, which was picked up from district's Rampur Patel Mohalla on Wednesday night, was among 17,700 followers of Mehdi’s Twitter handle.
Though Jabalpur police have feigned ignorance on detention from the region, sources in the state’s intelligence unit said that suspects had re-tweeted some of the sensitive posts from the pro-ISIS account operated by Biswas, 24, who was arrested by Bengaluru on charges of waging war against India last week.
READ ALSO: One lakh replies to @Shamiwitness under scrutiny
IP address of around 50 ‘objectionable’ emails received on Biswas’s email id were traced to their computers in Jabalpur by the Bengaluru police who subsequently contacted their MP counterparts for further investigations, said sources.
More than one lakh replies to the tweets of Biswas are being scanned.
Police are also analysing whether any of these followers have anything to do with ISIS or any other jihadi outfits.

Twitter has also been asked to retrieve all data connected to @ShamiWitness, including the deleted messages and replies from its data bank by the police.
Jabalpur Inspector General (IG) Srinivas Rao and MPATS chief Sanjeev Shami, however said no arrest had been made related to @ShamiWitness.
“Some other agency must working on it…not us,” said Rao citing ‘detentions’ could be just a rumour.
But, insiders claim that detainees are being grilled and would be released only after scanning contents of the mail.