Mumbai: Maharashtra Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) to begin an intervention programme in educational institutes to prevent youth from being bombarded with radical ideologies through internet.
Earlier this month, the ATS approached 152 schools and colleges across the state and interacted with as many as 61,000 students about indoctrination on the internet and how to guard against it.
Many instances have emerged of youths being targeted online by radical outfits including ISIS. Intelligence agencies too agree that educated and middle-class youth are brainwashed.
"This is our outreach effort. Our officers point out to students the nature of indoctrination and radicalization happening. We discuss do's and don'ts for the internet. Our effort is to bring minorities into the national mainstream; they should not get marginalized," said ATS chief Himanshu Roy.
ATS has made teams of 40-50 officers to make presentations in educational institutes and have dialogue with the youth. Officers have been working to understand how and what the youth think, telling them about the dangers of jihadi websites and providing answers to their questions.
Dr Dalia Ghanem Yazbeck, research analyst with Carnegie Middle East Center, Beirut says, "Some of these young fighters have never even opened the Quran, and despite it, are fighting in its name. We cannot believe all of them are ideologically convinced”.
"One has to keep in mind that ISIS is a 2.0 (version 2) jihadi group. The generation of fighters is young and master tech. They could be longing for thrill, seeking recognition or join due to social affiliation," added Yazbeck.
Analysts say that governments need to develop a counter-speech that will explain the dangers of extremist rhetoric.
