New Delhi: Despite the government claims of a very limited influence of Islamic State among Indian Muslims, the findings of a recently conducted survey by intelligence agencies has disclosed the increasing curiosity of the youth in activities of the terror outfit on social media.
According to a report in Times of India, an intelligence survey has revealed that unlike the IT hubs like Bengaluru and Hyderabad, ISIS is generating a major chunk of its traffic from mofussil towns like Chinchwad (a suburb of Pune) and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, besides smaller cities like Srinagar and Guwahati.
Mumbai, the only metro among the top six Indian cities featuring in the survey, ranks fifth after Srinagar, Guwahati, Chinchwad and Howrah.
“State wise, Jammu and Kashmir is leading the chart followed by Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Uttar Pradesh has the most number of towns that any other state attracting young to explore the ISIS propaganda,” the daily reported.
The study findings were placed before a meeting of Chief Secretaries and DGPs of 12 states convened by the Home Ministry earlier this month to discuss the growing appeal of ISIS.
With most of the curious users ageing between 16-30 years and belonging to both the genders, they are also coming from all walks of life, educational and social backgrounds, the survey stated.
The survey's revelations comes on the heels of a US internal state department assessment that painted a dismal picture of the efforts by Obama administration and its foreign allies to combat the ISIS's message machine, portraying a fractured coalition that cannot get its own message straight.
The US survey had also found that the ISIS's violent narrative - promulgated through thousands of messages each day - has effectively "trumped" the efforts of some of the world's richest and most technologically advanced nations.
