An Indian business executive has reportedly been exposed as the mastermind behind an influential Twitter account supporting the Islamic State, Britain's Channel 4 News reported on Thursday. An investigation has been launched by police authorities.
Described as a senior business executive from Bangalore, the channel named the pro-jihad tweeter "@ShamiWitness" as "Mehdi" but refused to reveal his full name since it might pose a threat to his life.
"He is an executive in Bangalore working for an Indian conglomerate," Channel 4 reported Thursday.
The pro-ISIS Twitter account, which had nearly 18,000 followers, was popularly known as one of the main sources to provide latest news on ISIS' happenings in English and supported the terrorist organization's alarming rise in Syria and Iraq, Agence France-Presse reported. Shortly after being exposed by journalists, the account was shut down Thursday.
Mehdi had been unable to join the ISIS ranks because of his financial responsibility to his family, the channel quoted him as saying on Twitter. "If I had a chance to leave everything and join them I might have.. my family needs me here."
On his @ShamiWitness account, which was followed by many foreign jihadi fighters, he used to tweet jihadist propaganda as well as information for would-be recruits and messages praising fallen fighters as martyrs.
Although authorities had not been monitoring unusual activities on social media, Bangalore police chief MN Reddi said that his department had launched an investigation.
"I have seen the report as you have," police commissioner M.N. Reddi said at a media briefing on Friday. "We have taken note of it and are investigating the matter."
"The city police as well as the internal security division of the Karnataka police are investigating the matter," he told BBC Hindi, adding that the National Investigation Agency had also been in contact with local police.
"We are ready to face any threat perception to the city. We have set up a special team to study the report and trace the culprit," he added.
Meanwhile, ISIS has made extensive use of social media to recruit foreign fighters and to disseminate footage of its militants beheading Western journalists and aid workers in gruesome execution videos.