INDIA APPROACHED UNITED STATES AND SAUDI ARABIA SEEKING
DETAILS OF INTERNET PROTOCOL
India
has approached the United States and Saudi Arabia, seeking details of Internet
Protocol (IP) addresses and other technical details of websites and users who
were behind the uploading of inflammatory content to incite communal tensions
in the country.Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday ordered
the blocking of 65 more websites and web pages for carrying morphed images and
fake videos targeting the northeast people.
Sources
in the MHA said Home Secretary R.K. Singh spoke to Foreign Secretary Ranjan
Mathai and apprised him of the investigations being carried out by various
intelligence and security agencies on how Pakistan-based elements were
indulging in a cyber war against India. The Ministry of External Affairs was
also asked to raise this sensitive issue at international fora and expose the
“nefarious designs” of the neighbouring country.To take its investigations to a
logical conclusion, the MHA has decided to send a formal request to the
authorities concerned in the U.S. seeking its cooperation in the case as
computers servers of most the sites used for uploading inflammatory contents
such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were stationed in America.
A
similar request would be made to Saudi Arabia as investigations revealed that
apart from Pakistan, derogatory contents were also uploaded from the Gulf
nation. “We will be sending Letter Rogatory to both the nations as it is
acceptable in a court of law as legal evidence…these will then be shared with
Pakistan with other clinching evidences,” a senior MHA official said.Union Home
Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said security agencies have got “much information”
regarding the origin of inflammatory content on Internet and spread of hate
SMSs. The matter was still under investigation. India would not disclose from
where it got the proof that Pakistan-based elements were behind it.The MHA has
asked the Ministry of Communications and IT (MCIT) to block 65 new websites and
web pages, thus taking the total number of such websites in the past four days
to 310. Notably, names of two Pakistan political parties — Jamaat-e-Islami
Pakistan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf — and a private TV channel of that
country have surfaced in some of the inflammatory videos and images. “We are
looking into it to find out the role of these organisations in spreading hate
and inciting communal passions in India,” the official said.Officials in the
MHA and MCIT have blamed some social networking sites such as Twitter for not
cooperating with them that has led to the authorities facing problems in blocking
at least two dozen websites having objectionable content. The MCIT is planning
to take action against these companies.
Prof.
John Kurakar
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