Sydney, March 2: A former Sydney taxi driver of Bangladeshi origin has been linked to Islamic State, (ISIS) accused of administering the group’s encrypted messages.
He currently lives in Sydney with his wife, children and step-children, according to the online vigilante group Ghost Squad Hack.
The man originally from Bangladesh is now an Australian citizen.
The Auburn man is also alleged to have travelled to Syria in 2015, to support the ISIS group. This was understood to be an attempt to fight with the Islamic State.
He returned to Sydney six months later via Turkey, from the conflict ridden zone. Australian Federal Police officers were waiting for him when he arrived back in September 2015.
But he is believed to not have actually fought in Syria and only spent time with the radical group. Although anti-terrorism investigators raided his Auburn home, where his wife, their children and his wife’s children from a previous marriage, lived; he has not been charged with any offence.
According to sources the man remains under surveillance because of his suspected radical views and links to Islamic State.
“An administrator is the right term for him,” a source familiar with the investigation told the AGE.
Allegedly continuing his administering work for ISIS, the man remains involved and continues to administer Islamic State’s online messaging system. He is said to be taking care of the WhatsApp and Telegram groups that the radical ISIS group uses to communicate internally and for recruiting.
The international group, Ghost Squad Hackers released a trove of documents uncovering the identities and activities of numerous “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” (ISIS) elements.
The “Operation Decrypt ISIS” documents included personal information and online activity logs that unmask the identities of the targeted ISIS fighters in 14 countries, including Australia.
The Bangladeshi origin man has been a former security guard and has had no criminal convictions. He is alleged to frequent a Masjid in NSW where he may have been radicalised.
Ghost Squad Hackers released images claiming they were from his phone that depicted ISIS flag flying above Venice, children brandishing Islamic State flags and a meme saying “One bullet away from Paradise”.
Several documents leaked also pointed to a specific Islamic school in NSW where, children of accused Islamic State supporters are enrolled.
The information made public by Ghost Squad Hackers also included names of social media account owners, telephone numbers, photographs, geographic locations and personal information such as bank account numbers.
Alleged Islamic State members from other countries including Indonesia, Belgium and Uganda were also exposed.
Leaked data from one Belgian teenager’s phone, had a video about how to most effectively behead someone.
Ibn al-Waleed Studies and Field Research Centre director Mazen Zaki told Diyaruna that further examination of the collected information by Ghost Squad Hackers will shed light on ISIS’s recruitment operations via the internet and social networking sites.
The social media accounts that were hacked were “the group’s first line of attack”, through which it has been able to recruit thousands of youth from around the world into its ranks, he said.
“The exposure of this network will deprive the group of one of its most important recruitment tools and remove a serious threat to civilians around the world,” he added.
Nidhi Mehta