The Indian security agencies have launched a major crackdown against Social media users across Kashmir valley.
Sources confirmed News agency Press Trust of Kashmir “Security agencies are scanning such accounts and trying to get their locations as they suspect many locals to be behind this. It is suspected that these locals may have given logistical support to Dar during the attack”.
According to a senior intelligence officer, more than 5,000 active social media accounts linked to banned militant outfits, which are continuously posting and sharing pictures and video of the Pulwama attack and portraying Dar as a hero, are under their scanner.
As per the report security forces said “Most of the active sympathisers are in the Valley while some are manipulating the facts and running Islamic propaganda from Pakistan. We are trying to identify their real identity along with their geo-location for ground monitoring”.
“The whole idea is to handicap the new generation and the easiest platform is the digital world. Soon after the Pulwama attack the message of ‘Kashmir Azadi’ started to circulate across the internet,” the source said.
The security agencies are closely monitoring militancy supporters’ communication on WhatsApp and Telegram groups to gather more information on them.
Mynation further reported that “The situation in Kashmir is worrying as they have made several chat rooms, fora, pages and WhatsApp groups from where they are slowly poisoning youths by manipulating the facts. They have become part of these groups and time and again keep posing news, pictures and videos of atrocity done to Muslims in the Valley, which are nothing but morphed clippings. They edit the content to show Syrian refugees as Kashmiris and Israeli soldiers as Indians,” said a senior officer.
These supporters mostly operate using aliases on social media. Facebook is the most popular medium to reach out to a large audience but most of their internal communication happens through encrypted chat.
