Pakistani groups JuD, Sipah-e-Sahaba go online to expand reach

New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) Once highly secretive, Pakistani
hardline militant groups like Jamat-ud-Dawa and the pro
al-Qaeda Sipah-e-Sahaba are plugging into western social
networking sites like 'Facebook' to expand their reach.

Jamat-ud-Dawa, blamed by India for 2008 Mumbai massacre,
has also been banned by the United Nations and a number of
western countries. It is going public intending to influence
'netizens' to advocate violence against non-Muslims or
'Kafirs'.
The information they have posted online with photographs
clearly show men and women at their congregation brandishing
guns and hi-tech assault weapons.
Internet pages of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a banned militant Sunni
Islamic organisation, openly preach their anti-Shiite bias.
The groups are being allowed to operate without
censorship by the Pakistani authorities, who recently
restricted access to hundreds of Internet pages for
anti-Islamic contents.
Pakistan has recently launched military campaign against
the groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba, but Islamabad's double-dealing
is exposed by allowing them access to cyber space.
JuD, which claims to be a charity group, has been helping
in flood relief work in Sindh and northwestern region.
The JuD in its 'Facebook' page continues its
India-bashing claiming that Indian intelligence was behind the
attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore last year.
The US, the UK and other western nations are already
worried over the influence these campaigns are having on
Muslim youths.
There have been arrests recently of a number of youths in
the US who claimed they were going to join Jihad against
American forces in Afghanistan and Somalia. PTI AKV
RBT