When guns replace the pen: How Wani, Nibras created a new league of 'educated' militants
Hizbul's poster boy-Burhan Muzaffar Wani-did not just have the looks, but he also had the heart. One might find it strange when we say that for a militant who killed many innocent soldiers, but consider his social media campaign.
He assures Amarnath pilgrims that the militants would not attack them and on a similar note, he invites Kashmiri Pundits to come back to their land, but not expect an 'Israel-like' situation.
Indeed! This 22-year old man had other intentions and they had nothing to do with common man. Burhan's enemies were the army and the men in uniform. And he has every reason to hate them. The fact that his elder brother was killed in an encounter when he was out with his three friends, trying to meet Burhan (who had by then fled the house. The military alleged that the brother was trying to recruit his friends in Burhan's army, but that is yet to be ascertained.
While this shows the vicious cycle between the security forces' strive to protect the common man and the creation of a new militant in town with every such encounter, the fact that militancy is seeing a legacy in educated recruits makes it even more unacceptable.
[Read: Why killing Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani was "absolutely" necessary ]
Wani and the Dhaka terrorists
Wani's father is the Principal of a Higher Secondary School in the Tral town of Pulwama district. Deeply respected by his students, he had passed on his intellect to his son. Burhan was very good at studies and his teachers expected him to do well in life. But he proved them wrong when he left studies at the age of 15 and joined the Hizbul in 2010.
[Read: Burhan Wani killed: 300 online accounts from Pakistan propagate hate]
Burhan became the face of Hizbul since then. Images and videos of him started doing the rounds of the Internet, which were posted to radicalise young Muslims. In one of his videos he appealed youth to join Hizbul Mujahideen and is considered to have recruited at least 30 young boys from South Kashmir. His internet presence turned him into a hero when he posted a photo of his playing cricket with fellow militants.
Wani was not alone
Three out of six terrorists in Dhaka bakery shooting belomged to educated and rich background. Nibras Islam had studied at a top private university in Dhaka and had also pursued higher studies in Monash University's Malaysia campus. Meer Saameh Mubasheer, the second terrorist, was a Class-11 student who was on his way to the coaching center when he changed his mind and joind jihad. The third one Rohan Imtiaz was the son of a leader of the Awami League.
[Read: Dhaka: When the smiling gunmen chose non-Muslim targets, Muslim boy chose to die beside Hindu friend]
Bengaluru-based software engineer from West Bengal-Mehdi Masroor Biswas-had become the talk of the town when he was caught managing the Twitter account of the ISIS for past many years. Although he was not directly connected to the ISIS, his Twitter handle had become the information source for many new recruits trying to join the ISIS. The software engineer has been charged with offences including waging war against a friendly nation and violation of India's Information Technology Act.
Karnataka's director general of police for L Pachuau said, "His Twitter handle had become a source of information for new recruits of Islamic State. He was in touch with the English-speaking terrorists from the terrorist group, thereby abetting them. Although many of his posts on Twitter were translations from Arabic tweets, there were some original tweets which we are investigating."
Portraits of recruits
A research study by a computer scientist from North Carolina Zeeshan ul-hassan Usmani estimates that there are over 71,000 people in the west (North America, Australia and Europe) ready to be radicalised. And contrary to popular belief, recruits from Europe and US are more likely to be educated and belonging to the upper echelons of the society.
[Read: Dhaka Siege: Unfinished stories and those who live to tell them ]
Usmani has come to this conclusion after tracking the Twitter and the social media activity of thousands of men and women. Here are some of the other top findings by him, George Washington University's "ISIS in America" report and Brooking Institution's "The ISIS Twitter Census" report:
1.
In
their
20s
(GWU
found
the
average
age
is
26)
2.
Predominately
male
(GWU
found
86%
are
male)
3.
Usually
middle
or
upper
class
(Usmani
estimates
73%
of
recruits
and
likely
radicals
are
middle
class
or
wealthier).
4.
More
likely
to
be
2nd
or
3rd
generation
immigrants
(Usmani
finding.
It
is
likely
because
they
don't
feel
"at
home"
in
either
culture).
5.
They
don't
like
selfies
(In
Europe,
over
half
of
Facebook
users
post
selfies,
but
only
1%
of
potential
recruits
do,
Usmani
found).
6.
Far
more
likely
to
use
Android
(nearly
70%
have
Android
devices,
according
to
Brookings)
7.
More
active
on
Twitter
than
average
Twitter
user
(Brookings
found
62%
of
ISIS
supporters
had
tweeted
within
the
past
month
versus
just
13%
of
all
Twitter
users).
8.
Want
to
go
abroad.
(GWU
found
that
about
half
attempt
to
travel
abroad
if
they
live
in
West).
(Courtesy: CNN Money)