A Russia-linked network on Telegram is encouraging and "offering to pay" British residents to attack mosques, The Guardian reported. The network is allegedly asking people living in the United Kingdom (UK) to commit violent attacks on mosques and Muslims in return of cryptocurrency. 

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The alleged channels have already been linked to real world events in the form of Islamophobic graffiti sprayed on mosques and schools in east and south London earlier this month, reported British newspapers. 

The groups were also reported to have been sharing PDFs containing bomb-making recipes and designs for 3D-printed weapons. Several posters with QR codes of the groups and their social media accounts were also seen on London streets. 

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But, the case came into limelight after a change in its language. Earlier, they just encouraged graffiti, now they have explicitly called on people to carry out knife attacks on Muslims. 

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A counter-terrorism police and the Home Office by the campaign group "Hope Not Hate" has said that it is worried that the network with Russian links posses a much greater threat than the incitement to violence routinely found on other extreme-right Telegram chats.

Other organisations such as Community Security Trust (CST) and Tell Mama - monitor hate crime against Jews and Muslims respectively - have also expressed their concern on the matter. 

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Ken McCallum, the head of MI5 (UK's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency), warned in October that Russian intelligence has been on a mission to generate “sustained mayhem on British and European streets”.

(With inputs from agencies)