Militants launch ISIS-style news agency in Bangla

Militants have launched a ISIS-style news agency in Bangla, to back up their violent campaign with 'information warfare'.

The news agency Al Tamkin has been successfully blocked by Bangladesh cyber-intelligence, but the militants have also come up with a Bangla version of the ISIS-backed news agency Amaq.  Both Al Tamkin and Amaq in Bangla can be accessed in India.

The militants are releasing propaganda material aimed at radicalisation of young Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh and neighbouring Indian states through these two sites,

Indian external intelligence agency RAW and West Bengal police intelligence have both alerted Delhi to the dangers posed by these news agencies.

They are releasing texts, audio material and video clips and have also released a mobile app to get tuned to the ISIS radio station Al Bayan for its English bulletin.

An ISIS supporter Zakil Ummah posted on social networking platforms that these domains have been deleted. "We are waiting for their reinstallation," Zakil said.

The speed with which the Dhaka attack pictures were released on ISIS-run media leads Indian intelligence to believe that Bangladeshi homegrown militants have managed to develop direct links with Al Hayat media, the ISIS' foreign language publication wing.

Al Tamkin carried a long interview of the IS Bangladesh chief Abu Hanif and systematically uploaded translated material from Dabiq, ISIS journal, into Bangla. This Hanif is said to be a Bangladesh expat Tanim Choudhury who reportedly lives in Canada.

Al Tamkin's mission statement says it wants to 'carry the voice of the Khilafah to those who speak Bangla'.