With compulsive ISIS “tweeter” Mehdi Masroor Biswas now in police custody, the intelligence agencies may draw a lot of useful data from him to help tackle other known sympathisers of the terror outfit the world dreads most now. A lot of other details on the multinational executive may have more to do with cloak and dagger, there is speculation he was being silently monitored for “jihadist” activities on the Internet by agencies like RAW.
The simplest conclusion to draw is that India faces a complex problem in radicalisation of youth. To stem it before it spreads further, with some actually taking to terrorism or joining the ISIS in Syria or Iraq, is one of this country’s biggest challenges. A few young men from Mumbai did that, only to find that ground realities differ from myths woven by anti-establishment zealots who turn to terror in the name of waging an ideological war.
One of the reasons why India cannot allow unfettered freedom on the Internet is to curb people who take undue interest in extremist ideas. The argument is not over whether this particular high-profile catch is a real terror sympathiser or merely a virtual presence on the Web looking for vicarious enjoyment of the destructive. It has more to do with national security, over which there cannot be any compromise, particularly in an age when danger lurks for the great degree of freedom we have enjoyed for decades till now. The price we must pay to enjoy continued peace and freedom is eternal vigilance.
