3 followers of pro-ISIS Twitter account held

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh counter-terrorist group and anti-terrorist squad on Wednesday detained three youths in Jabalpur for allegedly following and ‘interacting’ with ISIS propaganda on the Twitter account @ShamiWitness run by Mehdi Masroor Biswas. The trio were among 17,700 followers of Biswas’s Twitter handle, state intelligence sources told TOI.
READ ALSO: Now, a cell to monitor social media
Though Jabalpur police were tight-lipped about the detentions, the sources said the suspects re-tweeted sensitive posts from the pro-ISIS account allegedly operated by Biswas, who was arrested by Bengaluru police last week on charges of waging war against India.
READ ALSO: Most charges against Mehdi will not stick
The IP addresses of at least 50 ‘objectionable’ emails on Biswas’s id were tracked to computers in Jabalpur by Bengaluru police, who got in touch with their MP counterparts for investigations, the sources said. More than one lakh replies to tweets by Biswas are being scanned. Police are analyzing whether any of these followers have anything to do with ISIS or other jihadi outfits. They have asked Twitter to retrieve data connected to @ShamiWitness — including deleted messages and replies — from its databank.

Jabalpur inspector general Srinivas Rao and MPATS chief Sanjeev Shami denied making any arrests related to @ShamiWitness. “Some other agency must be working on it, not us,” he said, adding the ‘detentions’ could be a rumour.
READ ALSO: Who is Mehdi Masroor Biswas?
Mehdi Masroor Biswas was confident his identity won't get revealed: Cops