Govt preparing report on Pak role, looking for India link

Even as the government is preparing a report about the involvement of some groups and individuals in Pakistan in circulating morphed pictures and provocative messages and videos to scare northeastern people, security agencies are not ruling out the role of some India-based groups either.

Although a large portion of the morphed pictures originated from Pakistan, with a deliberate attempt to create communal problems in India, some of the groups in India also circulated those, officials said.

Investigators say not all social media websites are cooperating with the probe and have yet not blocked all the inflammatory content that is available on the internet.

 

The Bangalore Police, which is investigating the case along with the Intelligence Bureau, said they are looking at all the possibilities.

During the course of the investigation, senior officials have indicated that morphed pictures first started to be posted on social networks in the last week of July. Security agencies have prepared a 40-page report with the help of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and the India Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) that managed to trace these fake pictures and messages to Pakistan.

Officials said the Union government was talking to authorities in Pakistan to help nab the culprits. The government will send evidence to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistan today said it would block all websites that spread hatred in India and take stern action against them if evidence was shared through "proper channel".

Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik also said his country had a policy not to interfere in "internal matters" of other countries and said action would be taken if there is evidence. "If there is any query from India to inquire into this matter, we will definitely look into it and take action. I have enquired on my own on this issue and I categorically state that there is no initiative from our side on this which has come to our notice.”