Social media now becoming tool to train bomb-making and spread ‘jihad’

Nagpur: The busting of Pusad-based module of pro-jihad group and their associates across India has brought to fore that social media platforms are being increasingly used by Pakistan and Afghanistan-based terror groups to indoctrinate youngsters to participate in the ‘holy war’. The terror outfits are also learnt to be training Indian youths, including the ones arrested by state anti-terrorist squad (ATS), in the techniques of preparing bombs and other improvised explosive devices apart from grooming them as active militants targeting different key destinations.
It has come to fore that Maulana Hafiz Mujibar Rehman, preacher from Pusad mosque, mostly used his oratorical skills during the sermons to motivate youngsters to join jihad. Rehman, now in ATS custody till November 12, was learnt to be the main motivator for Abdul Malik who attacked three police personnel outside mosque on the day of Eid-ul-Azha in September shortly after leaving the mosque to protest the beef ban. Malik had a close link to Shoeb Khan alias Pusad Shoeb and Shah Mudassir who had been earlier nabbed by Hyderabad police last year in October.
It is learnt that the intelligence security agencies, now keeping a close tab on social networking sites and chat rooms for terror-related contents, had helped Hyderabad police to zero down on Mudassir and Shoeb who were preparing to leave for Pakistan and Afghanistan to attend terror camps. They had a plan to return to India to execute “jihad’.
On the basis of cyber surveillance, intelligence wings had also indicated close links of Pusad Shoeb to another of his same name in Raipur in Chhattisgarh. On the basis of information, Nagpur ATS had rounded up another youth, identified as Shoeb Raipur, for his regular interactions with Pusad Shoeb but was let off after no major links was established between the two. Shoeb Raipur had claimed to have visited Saudi Arabia for work but returned to India without being able to settle down there. He now owns a courier service.
Sources from Nagpur ATS said that Mudassir and Pusad Shoeb were regularly chatting with their motivators in Pakistan who had been not only instigating to wage a ‘holy war’ but also preparing them as expert bombers. “The chat rooms of social networking sites would turn into a venue for training techniques of bomb making with locally available devices and gadgets. The trainers in Pakistan would codify their training manuals and send them for their Indian operatives,” said the officer. “The manuals would be mostly in Urdu and such language which the trainers from Pakistan shared with the Indian chatters following their ideology,” he said.
Another officer of ATS said that the concept of ISIS and such terror group to start jihad did not mean that the local recruits would have to necessarily shift to Afghanistan or the Middle-East to be part of the scheme but they can join and operate from their homeland with instructions shared in chat rooms and on social networking sites. “Social networking sites have become the main platform for the jihadi groups across the globe to come in close contact with each other and share their experience and logistics,” said a senior ATS officer.