Has @ShamiWitness fled Bengaluru? Here's all we know about the Islamic State's voice

The Bangalore advertising executive who allegedly ran the most successful Twitter account for ISIS called @ShamiWitness has most likely run away from the city, according to the police. A report in Times of India says that “senior Bengaluru police officials said that a search is on for the man” but officials suspect that he “may have fled the city”. Bengaluru city commissioner MN Reddi was quoted as saying that the Central Crime branch was investigating the case. According to a Channel 4 report which bought the story to light, the man who is only known as Mehdi worked with an Bengaluru-based firm and lives with his family in the city. The report quoted Mehdi as saying in the article that he didn’t want his full name revealed since it would put his life in danger. He also said that the only reason he hadn’t joined the Islamic State in its fight was because his family was dependent on him. So what do we know about @ShamiWitness for now? [caption id=“attachment_1846309” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screengrab of the Twitter account.[/caption] For starters, he ran one of the most successful Twitter account for ISIS with nearly 18,000 followers. According to the Channel 4 report nearly “two-thirds of all foreign fighters on Twitter followed him”. The report adds that if a fighter’s account was suspended, @ShamiWitness would promote a new one and that he relied on his mobile to post updates. While his Twitter account was devoted to jihad, Mehdi was quite okay showing off a completely different life on Facebook. The report on Channel 4 says that his Facebook account was littered with the usual social media updates like “jokes, funny images and talks about superhero movies, posting pictures of pizza dinners with friends, and Hawaiian parties at work.” @ShamiWitness’ Twitter account was shut down after he was contacted by Channel 4. However it appears that Twitter wasn’t the only tool he relied on for propaganda. There is also a blog by called ShamiWitness which can be accessed here. It has a total of two posts. The blog’s last post is from 15 June 2013 and is titled, “On al Baghdadi’s disobedience of Dr Zawahiri.” al-Baghdadi has declared himself as Caliph of the Islamic State and Zawahiri is the man who has taken charge of the al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden’s death. The post is basically an analysis of what al Baghdadi’s disobedience of al-Qaeda means for the jihadist world and looks at the inner of politics of how jihadist groups like JN (al-Nusra front) and ISIS is shaping out. In another piece called from May 2013 with the title, “When Jihadists are the only ones left standing”, he talks about how the JN and ISIS have a huge opportunity in Syria. “All the regime advances are happening at the expense of the mostly SMC-allied brigades which are losing ground, partly due to lack of weapons. A logical next step for these hapless fighters would be to ally with the one force that very rarely loses territory to Assad regime : Jabhat an Nusra and allied jihadists,” he writes. For now it appears that while his Twitter account has disappeared, his blog is still very much alive. Given that the Channel 4 report hasn’t revealed much about the man, more details will perhaps emerge only once the police apprehends him.