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Mufti’s kin, separatists, J&K leaders on latest Pegasus list It’s treason: Rahul on snooping row; targets PM, Shah
SRINAGAR: Phone numbers of former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s family, Kashmiri politicians, separatist leaders, and journalists were selected as possible targets for phone surveillance between 2017 and 2019, online news portal The Wire said on Friday.
The Wire, part of a 17-member global investigative media consortium, reported that two family members of Mufti were found on a list of people who could potentially be targeted by Pegasus, an Israeli military grade spyware to infiltrate phones for snooping and surveillance.
Their names were listed months before Mufti’s coalition government collapsed after the Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew support.
Sharing the link of The Wire’s story, Mufti said in a tweet: “A spyware used against terrorists has been weaponised to deal with political opponents & dissenters. BJP has taken a leaf out of how Britishers would suspect & treat Indians during the colonial era. GOI has gone rogue & is brazenly subverting basic human rights.”
Mufti, who is now a trenchant critic of the BJP and part of an alliance pushing for the restoration of the region’s statehood and special status, told The Wire that surveillance, as a concept, was not new for Kashmiris.
To be sure, the presence of a number does not indicate the individual’s phone was hacked — just that it was of interest. In the absence of digital forensics of specific devices, it is not possible to conclusively establish that the phones linked to these numbers were hacked.
In all, about 25 people from the region were found on the list of potential targets, the website said.
Also on the list were separatist leader and Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, separatist leader Bilal Lone and former Delhi University professor SAR Geelani. Forensic analysis found traces of Pegasus software on Lone and Geelani’s phones, The Wire reported. “Hacking into people’s phone for surveillance, is a wilful and direct violation of the universally acknowledged fundamental right to privacy, a basic human right, and those involved in it should be tried,” a Hurriyat spokesman said.
J&K Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari’s brother Tariq Bukhari was also found on the list of potential suspects between 2017 and 2019. Bukhari was one of the 14 Kashmiri leaders who attended a landmark meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.
At least five Kashmiri journalists were named as well.
The Pegasus row erupted on Sunday night after the consortium reported that India was among countries that used Israeli company NSO Group’s phone hacking software to potentially target politicians, journalists and activists.
The first report alleged that 38 Indian journalists, including three current Hindustan Times staffers and one from sister publication Mint, were among 180 journalists potentially targeted worldwide. Subsequent reports said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa and two sitting Union ministers – including Ashwini Vaishnaw -- were on the list of potential targets.
The allegations roiled Parliament. The government as well as the BJP refused any wrongdoing and insisted that India had a well-established protocol for tapping telephones and it was used only for national security. But the Opposition called for a separate probe into the charges.
NEW DELHI : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah of using Pegasus spyware against “India, its institutions and its democracy”, and said that the only word for this is “treason”.
He added that every phone he uses is tapped, and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe and Shah’s resignation.
“Pegasus is classified by the Israeli state as a weapon and that weapon is supposed to be used against terrorists. The prime minister and the home minister have used this weapon against the Indian state and our institutions. They have used it politically .... The only word for this is treason...,” he said.
“The home minister should resign and a judicial inquiry by the Supreme Court should be conducted against Narendra Modi as no one else can authorise the use of Pegasus… only the Prime Minister and home minister can authorise its use.” He described himself as an “open book” and said he is not intimidated. “I get phone calls from IB people who tap my phone. They call me up and say please be aware we are tapping your phone.” He added his security people have to report to their seniors everything he says. “So I am under no pretension that my phone is not tapped,” Gandhi said his phone has been tapped three-four times.
He called the alleged use of the spyware an “attack on the voice of the people”. Gandhi added it is not just a matter of his privacy. “...my phone is tapped. It is clearly tapped. So, it is not a potential target. But if you are not corrupt, you will not fear Modi… you tend to laugh.”
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore dared Gandhi to submit his phone for investigation if he believes it was tapped and insisted that no one’s phone has been tapped illegally. He said the Congress is determined to stall Parliament for one reason or another after being rejected twice by people in Lok Sabha polls of 2014 and 2019.
The government has neither confirmed nor denied whether it has purchased the spyware. NSO Group has on multiple occasions said that it offers services only to vetted government clients. The company has disputed the leaked list of numbers as those potentially targeted by its clients.
Congress’s Pawan Khera said, “The defence being put up by the government and the BJP is worse than the silence of the PM.’’ Reiterating their demand for a judicial inquiry, Khera pointed out that other countries had ordered one as revelations from the consortium of journalists surfaced.
“The French cabinet has met to discuss the investigation on the Pegasus-Gate; As we speak the Mexican Government has already launched an investigation; As we speak the Israeli Government has already ordered an enquiry and is looking at reviewing the export rules for NSO’s Pegasus. If not anything, this adds to the credibility of the expose,’’ he said.