A day after the person behind the ISIS propagandist Twitter account 'Shami Witness' was outed and the account reportedly shut, another account with a similar name has emerged, this time with the Twitter handle @ShamiWitness_2.
The new account, which seems to have been made on Friday when the news of the identity of Mehdi Masroor Biwas as the person behind Shami Witness made global headlines, has a similar picture and look of the original account.
The first few tweets on the account, written in Arabic with an English translation read as – "So wait; indeed we along with you are waiting."
The account already has more than 1,100 followers.
فتربصوا إنا معكم متربصون So wait; indeed we, along with you, are waiting.
— Shami Witness (@ShamiWitness_2) December 12, 2014
Mehdi Masroor Biswas, the Bengaluru executive identified as the person behind the popular ISIS fanboy account, had deleted the original Twitter account @Shamiwitness.
Charlie Winter, a researcher from anti-radicalisation think tank Quilliam Foundation, said that the new account could either mean there are multiple operators for the account or that it is a fake account.
For all you mourning demise of #ShamiWitness, he's apparently back: https://t.co/LRvs1FIAxR I can't wait to see how this pans out. — Charlie Winter (@charliewinter) December 12, 2014
New #ShamiWitness account could mean 1 of 3 things 1 Mehdi has a great hiding place 2 someone (intel?) is faking it 3 multiple operators
— Charlie Winter (@charliewinter) December 12, 2014
The twitter account also shares a link to the Shami Witness blog, which is still operational.
Some ISIS activists had warned that the Shami Witness account would be replaced.
If you remove #ShamiWitness another one will take his place that's how we roll we never rely on anything accept Allah swt — Ibn Abdulla (@windcrescent) December 12, 2014
The ISIS had reportedly sent out a plea asking its supporters to continue the jihad campaign online.
"The following has been written in relation to Shami, Ghazi and Marwan -- three of the most influential tweeps who have deactivated [their accounts] and whose absence has caused many others to abandon their posts in the darul cyberspace," the group had said after several popular jihadist accounts had shut.
Mehdi Masroor Biswas, the Bengaluru resident identified as the account operator, had said he would surrender to the police, who are reportedly in the process of tracking him down.
"I won't resist arrest when the time comes. I don't have any sort of weapons with me. I have no intention of resisting," Mehdi told Channel4 News, a UK channel that was the first to track down the account to India.
