There have been several posts on social media where in youth had criticised the execution of Memon.
Indian youth are getting attracted to the ISIS which is becoming a huge cause of concern for the government. ISIS has been luring youth to join the outfit through social media. The government had called a high level meeting to stop the radicalisation of youth towards ISIS. The Mumbai Police are searching for a journalist Zuber Ahmed Khan who expressed his desire to become the spokesperson of ISIS. Khan reportedly works with a magazine called ‘International Peace’ and he posts his blogs at zuberahmed.blogspot.com. Zuber had sympathised with Yakub Memon on social media and addressed him as a patriot. There have been several posts on social media where in youth had criticised the execution of Memon. Many of them feel that injustice has been meted against Memon who had himself come forward to surrender before the law and hence are attracted towards ISIS.
Crime branch officials believe that Khan lives in Navi Mumbai. On Tuesday, the police came close to arresting him when he was traced to Bandra, but the man managed to evade arrest.
Zuber’s controversial post was reported to police a few days ago. He had written that “he wished to give up his Indian citizenship and become a spokesperson for the ISIS”, in a post addressed to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
BJP-Shiv Sena led Maharashtra government has been keeping a track on the internet and social media activities to make sure that the hate messages on different platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp did not stir up passions in connections with the execution of Yakub Memon. Messages that were expected to spread hatred amongst different sections of the society were blocked following the hanging of Yakub Memon.
A retired ACP spoke to AV on the condition of anonymity and said, “After the execution of Yakub Memon Muslim youth have expressed their anger. Many of them have posted several comments in support of Yakub. Today Muslims are thinking that injustice is being meted against their community. We have many links of social media websites where Muslim youth have criticised the execution of Yakub. Since some of them may also disturb the communal harmony hence we can’t share them with the public. The cyber-crime officials are monitoring the comments posted by youth on social networking sites and removing those which may provoke violence.”
Delhi Police on alert meanwhile, Police is questioning his friends. A source said that he (Khan) had told his friends he would be go to Delhi by Rajdhani Express on Saturday, Aug 1. “From there, he wanted to go to Iraq embassy, to ask for the Caliphate citizenship”, his friends said. Mumbai police has alerted Delhi Police about the same. The Delhi Police is keeping a tab on whether he would visit the Iraq embassy.
“Attraction towards radical ideology of any religion is a matter of concern. We will have to put in place a system as there are inputs that many Indian youths are attracted to different extremist ideologies, including the one promoted by ISIS,” a Home Ministry official said.
According to an official estimate, around 25 youngsters have been identified across the country “as having been attracted to the idea of ISIS and wanting to join the group.” In Telangana, 17 youths have been prevented from travelling to Syria and, recently, four from Maharashtra were also stopped from travelling to the Middle-East.
Last year Arib Majeed, an engineering student from Kalyan near Mumbai, had fled to Iraq, along with three friends, to join ISIS but later he returned to India.
