Bengaluru police probing British media report on ISIS recruiter

BENGALURU: Crime branch of the city police has launched a probe to look into the veracity of a British media report claiming the man behind the most influential pro-Islamic State Twitter account followed by foreign jihadis, is from the IT city, a top police official said.

"We have received the information in the morning on this. We have asked the crime branch to look into the veracity of the report. Whatever action is to be taken, will be taken," City Police Commissioner M N Reddi told reporters here.

"Just as you have received a report, I have received it. There is a report. I confirm there is a report. We have taken note of this information and our crime branch is on the job to look into the veracity and if so what needs to be done," he said.

In its report, the British news broadcaster 'Channel 4' said that the man operating the account is an executive in the city working for an Indian conglomerate.

"He has until now been able to remain anonymous, avoiding questions about his motives and his central role in the Islamic State's propaganda war, but a Channel 4 News investigation can today reveal that the man operating the account is called Mehdi and he is an executive in Bangalore working for an Indian conglomerate," the report claimed.

"His tweets, written under the name Shami Witness, were seen two million times each month, making him perhaps the most influential Islamic State Twitter account, with over 17,700 followers," it said.

The twitter account @ShamiWitness now does not exist. Replying to a question if the city police was in contact with central agencies like NIA and IB on this, Reddi said "We are all in touch."

Responding to another question, he said, "We often get inputs on the presence of the sleeper cells, some times these reports are true, some times they turnout to be false. But we take all such inputs seriously."

"We go to the bottom of such inputs to check whether the input is true or false, and we work on the basis of it."