Militants running activities through social media:Daily Sun

 Different Islamist militant groups are running their organisational activities through the Internet and are also involving in cyber crime, posing threats to the national security and common people. As militants are launching their activities online, now cyber crime is increasing alarmingly in the country under the nose of law enforcers, sources said. This information has recently been disclosed a
fter the arrest of some members of JMB and Ansarullah Bangla Team in the capital in connection with the crime. Intelligence source said members of these banned militant outfits are inspiring people through Facebook to join Jihad against Iraq and Syria governments. The groups are disseminating not only militant ideology by uploading provocative contents but also running anti-state and anti-government propaganda through the social media. They have reportedly started campaigns online to motivate youths to join the militant organisations and instigating different criminal activities, including murder, sources said. A good number of militant activists have Facebook accounts and fan pages to propagate their ideas and conflicting thoughts to youths through the media. The militants groups tend to incline youngsters to join them in Jihad. On Saturday, Rajshahi University Professor Shafiul Islam Lilon was hacked outside his house in Rajshahi city and soon succumbed to his injuries in a local hospital. Shortly after the murder, Facebook community page Ansar al Islam Bangladesh– 2, a Jihad group, claimed the responsibilities for the killing. Though the Facebook page is running under the nose of police, they are yet to arrest the administrator of the page. As the Internet has been one of the main systems of communications, the militant organisations are spreading the Jihad doctrine through web pages, including Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Detectives arrested Morshed Alam alias Masum, ABT media wing chief and administrator of many pages, in his house in Kalyanpur area of the capital. According to the case statement, ABT was the first to translate into Bangla and upload on its website the Bangladesh-related part of al-Qaeda key man Ayman al Zawahri’s statement announcing formation of a branch of his militant group in the subcontinent. Detectives said many operatives have skills in information technology and were managing fake Facebook pages and using accounts to hunt down “atheists” so that its militant wing could attack them. A DB officer said that the militants also communicated with each other through some secret groups instead of using cell phones to avoid arrest. Masum, a graduate in computer science and engineering from East West University, was the main administrator of 117 Bangla language-based groups. The web pages are full of provocative information. ABT web pages include Bab-ul-Islam, Ansarullah Bangla, and Dawahillah. Some production houses including Balakot Media, Titumir Media, Ansarullah Bangla Media, Al Kadisia Media supply video clips to ABT to put them online, said detectives. DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam told reporters, “In addition to its own activities, ABT has been circulating statements and activities of global Islamist networks like al-Qaeda through the web pages.” Earlier on September 26, DD police arrested JMB leader Hifzur Rahman in the capital for trying to recruit members for the IS to strengthen its ongoing ‘jihad’. He has opened Facebook page “ISIS Bangladesh” from his account and was working as a recruiter of so-called jihadis through the social media. On November 9, DB police arrested alleged ABT leader Shaikh Muzaffar Bin Mohsin, 35, on charges of instigation through the social media for killing Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat leader Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi on August 27. Muzaffar in a speech instigated to kill Faruqi. The speech was also uploaded on Facebook and different websites of ABT, source said. Many activists of militant outfits like Ansarullah Bangla Team, JMB, Harkatul Zihad (Huji), Allahar Dal and Hizbut Tahrir are now active in the social media and running their activities, intelligence sources said. Experts said such networking by the militant outfits will influence common people and inspire them to join with them and this type of cybercrime has become a great threat to the national security. The government’s ability to fight cyber crime is getting hampered due to lack of appropriate tools and legislation. Militant groups also develop internet specialists to breach law. M Nazrul Islam, public prosecutor of Dhaka cyber crime tribunal, said, “The number of cyber crime cases are increasing day by day.” He further said, “We’re facing problems in getting information on criminals from Facebook for lack of deals between our government and Facebook authorities.”