State tracks websites with radical content

There are many other cases, where youth sympathising with outfits perpetrating terror in the name of religion, are held under different charges, but are kept confidential so not to publicise the growing allegiance towards extremism in the state, sources told DTNext and added that the cases of websites promoting with extremist content were on the rise in the state. 

“A majority of the cases in TN, arrested or ‘radicalised’ youth with eagerness to join militant organisations like ISIS, get attracted to extremism through online propaganda. Even contacts are established through online communication and there are no ground agents to either propagate or recruit youths to these militant organisations,” a senior state police official told DTNext. 

The Rajasthan Anti-Terror Squad has already returned to its base. However, the squad members did not make any fresh arrest. “They have concluded their investigation in TN and have gone back. There seemed to be no local level agents who worked in connivance with Mohammed Iqbal,” the official added.

Officials say, “There are online content developers employed by agencies like ISIS to target youth across the world and to bring them into their fold. The content on these websites are specially manufactured to capture the imagination of youth eager to join militant outfits. Once somebody shows interest, these agents open a private chat with them and try to recruit them to ISIS. Mohammed Iqbal also got involved with the agency only via online platform,” the official added. 

The State Special Division, a wing that is monitoring the extremism-related activities, is now working overtime to keep track of the online activities of such suspects and in many cases intervene before they take the major leap. “De-radicalisation is being carried out to such youths where we use a ‘moulvi’ to talk about the real spirit of the Holy Quran. We also keep a close watch on the travellers, who book tickets to terror-infested countries like Syria,” the official added. 

However, officials admitted that a micro-level intervention programme was needed to alert people about the dangers of falling prey to such organisations. “A social intervention programme is needed to counter the propaganda of such extremist elements, which are spreading their network in the state. We need to get back these fence-sitters back to normalcy through education and police alone cannot achieve it,” the official added.