Police in southern India said they have arrested a man who has admitted to running a popular pro-ISIS group Twitter account, but added that he appears to have no direct links to the militant group. Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a 24-year-old engineer, was being questioned by authorities, Bangalore's top police official, M.N. Reddy, told reporters on Saturday . He said police have no evidence so far that shows that Biswas had any direct links to militants of the Islamic State or any other radical Muslim extremist group.
"He appears to have been only majorly active in the virtual world," Reddy said. Britain's Channel 4 on Friday uncovered the identity of the man, who used the Twitter account @shamiwitness. The account has been deleted, but Britain's Channel 4 described Biswas as one of the militant group's most influential Twitter supporters, with 17,000 followers and more than 2 million views each month. The channel described the Twitter account as a "leading conduit of information between jihadis, supporters and recruits."
The Islamic State group, which has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria and declared a self-styled caliphate, or Islamic empire, in areas under its control, embraces social media platforms such as Twitter and YouTube.
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