PESHAWAR: Key commanders of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA) have split after developing differences with the khalifa commonly known by his Twitter handle @KhalifatulKhalifa.
The split was confirmed after a series of videos and posts surfaced on social media showcasing the complete shock among the commanders after realising that they’ve been paying allegiance to a Twitter bot.
A few weeks ago a tweet surfaced in which TTP’s @KhalifatulKhalifa was seen claiming that he has survived a hack attempt on his Twitter account.
This tweet was followed by a purported audio message in which the Khalifa blamed @Khalifatullah – the leader of the breakaway JuA of sending un-Islamic tweets.
Another video was later released to the media, on Monday night, in which a group of key commanders could be seen swearing their allegiance to @HizKhalifa, which is verified on Twitter.
The Pakistani Taliban have urged the government to strictly implement the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2015, known commonly as the Cybercrime Law, that criminalises fake online personas.
Experts say that there is always a tug of war on social media terrorist groups leading to factionalism.
“It’s the nature of the digital guerilla outfits that the second-in-command or the third-in-command Twitter profiles aspire to take charge and this always benefits the social media platforms where these groups are active,” says @SecAnalyPk, who has 16,124 Twitter followers.
