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Assam violence: Islamabad, Delhi spar over ‘reprisal’ rumours
Incendiary content on Pakistani websites scare Assamese migrants into fleeing from Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai.
Incendiary content on Pakistani websites scare Assamese migrants into fleeing from Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai.
NEW DEHLI:
India has blamed Pakistan for posting threatening messages on the internet that triggered a mass exodus from Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai by migrants fleeing to their homes in the northeast.
The exodus was sparked by threats sent via mobile phones and the websites carrying Pakistan’s IP addresses, conveying that people from Assam, particularly the Christian tribesmen, would be attacked by Muslims after the end of Ramazan in reprisal for recent ethnic violence in the northeastern state.
“Our agencies have discovered that the bulk of these messages have been uploaded on various Pakistani websites,” Indian Home Secretary R K Singh told reporters. “This is a first of its kind and we believe it is highly reprehensible,” he said.
Singh said India would register a formal protest with Pakistan.
Youtube, social media sites and Pakistan-based websites were used to create the scare. Most of the provocative online content started getting posted from July 13, and fake profiles were created for spreading morphed pictures, according to a home ministry report prepared in the wake of the mass exodus.
“Pictures have been taken from different occasions such as the Tibet earthquake and Thailand, etc, and most of the fake profiles have been created in the end of July,” the report said.
“The viewed content is a small sample of what is available, since most of the posts are in vernacular mediums, translations of which have not been attempted,” it said.
Three weeks of clashes in Assam between members of the Bodo tribal community and Muslims have claimed at least 80 lives and displaced more than 400,000 people. All of India was taken aback when last week, 5,000 people from North Eastern India who lived in Bangalore and Pune began heading for railway stations, catching trains back to Assam.
Radical Muslim and Hindu groups alike have denied any role in this unprecedented episode of cyber-terrorism. India has banned bulk text messages temporarily to try to halt the spread of threats and incendiary rumours.
Indian officials also said that the issue would be discussed when Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna visits Islamabad during the first week of September.
Pakistan has debunked the allegations. Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Ali Khan said, “We regard these insinuations totally baseless and unfounded. Such statements are not conducive to an environment necessary for improving the relationship between the two countries.”
Another official requesting anonymity said that such allegations harm the carefully maintained bilateral ties between the two countries.
“First the issue of Pakistani Hindus’ migration was highlighted by the Indian authorities and media, now there is another issue taking place which is being worked out to merely purport Pakistan’s involvement in a purely internal matter of India,” said the official.
(WITH ADDITIONAL REPORING BY SUMERA KHAN IN ISLAMABAD AND AFP)
Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2012.
Reader Comments (14)
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it wudnt be too long before the truth is out…india has a history of blaming pakistan even before investigations get started and pakistan has a rich history of denying involvement even when investigations and world point out something else…
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Who gave the phone numbers of NE people to Pakistanis? Rajiv Gandhi Phone number distribution Yojna?
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Instead of blaming Pakistan, why dont they fix the problems so this does not happen? Inact, that is what they dont want to do and the easier way of shedding the responsibility is to place on old rival’s shoulders….
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It is a big issue and most international media is reporting this.Let us see who the world believes in.
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can u guys tell me 1 bad incident ever happened in india which they didn’t blame Pakistan for that ??????
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I think this is rather silly of the Indian govt to blame Pakistan for this. Freely available social media has ensured that we cannot isolate our populations from malicious content and rumours – we need to be more proactive to ensure that such incidents do not get out of hand as this one clearly has. This is not to say that Pak is not involved but that you need to protect your house all the more vigilantly if you live in a lousy neighborhood.
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@ Khan101…yes, I can give you whole list of bad things that will make you feel how lucky you are that we didnt blame you….:D
for instance. we didnt blame Pakistan for disasters like Manmohan Singh became our PM, Mamata Banerjee became CM of west bengal, Pratibha Patil became President of India, Kapil Sibal decided to use his intelligence as HRD minister. In fact, it is so obvious to see a pakistani role in planting the most stupid and idiotic government in India so that we dont progress but we just let it go. We never blamed you for Indian version of Zaid Hamid – Diggvijay Singh. We also didnt blame you for break-up of John-Bipasha, Ranbir-Deepika neither for marriage of Aish and Abhishek although every single incident was not less than national disaster. Did we blame you for sending your Veena Malik to India? Nor did we blame you when your famed singer was caught smuggling money at new delhi airport…..:P
so my friend, you are so wrong…we dont blame you for all of our national headaches….:D Recommend
Every action has a reaction. People forget those days when phone calls between India and Pakistan was difficult and a big deal. Now Indian government will come up with some smart and some not so smart measures that may affect the free digital communication between two countries.Right now bulk SMS are blocked. People in Pakistan are used to receiving and forwarding bulk religious texts as confirmed and commented by Naeem Percha in his humerus articles. India did not blame every one in Pakistan but has pin pointed eight sites belonging to extremest group responsible for this incident. They are more believable than a general denial by Pakistan. Interior Minister of Pakistan did call up Indian counter part in the disguise of Eid pleasantries to discuss the matter. But at the end as with other national disasters of Pakistan he is proven to be a paper tiger, all talk no substance.
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…well one should be less interested in ‘who’ the world believes in, than what is the truth. world opinion is one thing, but truth is incontrovertible. india does have a history in that region and it should stop using pakistan as a scapegoat for its policy failures. next thing we hear is pakistan being responsible for the largest blackout in indian history. lets solve our own problems and try to help each other too.
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Why should people forget that the same doctored pics were used to arouse passion for the Rohingya murders in the recent past. The same groups must be active now. There was an article in ET itself lamenting such stupid articles with false news and doctored pictures. At this rate the day may not be too far away when such false news and doctored stories create more mayhem in pakistan itself. Remember when terrorism started in Kashmir and India was blaming Pakistan, what was the response of Pakistan. The same monsters are having a field day in Pakistan now. After all snakes do not distinguish the hands who feed them or who dont.
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I am deeply ashamed by the Indian government’s stupid statement making Pakistan responsible for exodus of NE people. For the record — as per the latest news only 38% contents on the web was uploaded from Pak and the remaining from — any guess..? India. So how can Indian govt blame Pak?
Secondly, this incident shows that the people of NE had zero confidence in the law enforcement agencies in India, therefore they ran. How can the Indian government put blame on Pak for its own incompetence and failure?
Thirdly, to all those INDIANs who are blaming Pak and supporting our utterly incompetent and stupid government, please note if we allow are netas to make FOOL of us and blame everything on Pak, the day is not far when India would become a failed state.Recommend
@Akshay, India: ” … How can the Indian government put blame on Pak for its own incompetence and failure? … “
Spot on. All that the UPA government seems to bother about is dynastic succession while the country runs on auto-pilot.
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@Khan101: Can you point out one bad incident in India where Pakistan is not involved??
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why these peoples still fight for caste, religion other .humans are really foolsRecommend