KOZHIKODE: After nailing controversial preacher Zakir Naik, intelligence agencies and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are now after a new breed of preachers who have become active in social media by airing videos with discourses instigating communal hatred.
Intelligence officers said the group of new preachers was aping the ‘bayans’ (discourses and lectures) of radical Islamic preachers like Anwar Awlaki, Abdu Sami Qasmi, Meraj Rabbani, Tausif ur Rehman and Jerjees Ansari. “With enforcement agencies upping the surveillance in social media, the videos are being circulated using dark net through Tor browser, use of encryption applications such as Orbot, Amn al Mujahid (an encryption programme by Al-Fajr Media Centre, an exclusive distributor of Al Qaeda’s Propaganda), Chatsecure, Telegram and encrypted emails systems,” the officers added.
In Kerala, the videos are extensively circulated locally by a network owing allegiance to Jhund ul Khilafa Fi Bilad Al Hind (Army of the Caliph from south India). State intelligence confirmed that the IS operatives in Asia had established a joint operation task force and was into establishing a network of like-minded youth by sending the links of jihadi sites like Jihadology.net, Al-Shabab media and Just-Paste-it links. “Video footages of war between the cadre of the IS and the Iraqi forces are being widely circulated in Kerala to instigate youth to take up voluntary service in the IS,” the officers said.
Forensic analysis of electronic gadgets seized from various IS suspects had revealed that several incriminating contents were being used to influence people. The NIA investigators had seized many PDF files like ‘How to survive in the West- Mujahideen’ and ‘Explosives Handbook’ (The Mujahideen Explosives Handbook by Abdel-Aziz) from the chat details of the suspects.