A highly-classified government report on the recent incident of what has been described as the worst cyber attack on the country has said that it should not be treated as an 'isolated incident' as this exercise was not merely aimed at spreading communal hatred, but also to test the effectiveness of network of 'modules and sleeper cells' of subversive outfits in states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala.
These important revelations have been made in the Situation Report (SITREP) given by the Central intelligence agencies to the Central government details of which are available with this newspaper.
“Encouraged by the success of its propaganda campaign these Pakistan-backed outfits may plan a bigger offensive in the days to come,” the report states.
Outfits like the Jamaat-e-Islami, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Simi and Indian Mujahideen are already on the watch list of intelligence agencies for spreading communally-sensitive messages and pictures that triggered a massive exodus of people from the Northeast.
Intelligence agencies in their report have warned that outfits like HuJI, Indian Mujahideen, Simi and even the PFI have a formidable network in southern India and have 'increased their support base manifold' in the last few yeas in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
Thus, the report adds, this incident should be treated as a warning signal to sensitise security agencies to launch a massive offensive against these groups in the affected states.
Intelligence officials are looking into the possible connection between the Pune serial bombings and spreading of the hate material on the Internet as both incidents happened in quick succession. As much as 60 per cent of the hate content uploaded on the Internet has already been traced to Pakistan.
“It is highly suspicious that a few days after the Pune serial explosions Pakistan-based groups launched this hate campaign. Clearly, these terror groups do not want to let go of any opportunity for things to stabilise in India,” a senior government functionary said.
"And yes, these terror outfits know that communal violence can be much more lethal than any bomb explosion,” a senior government functionary said.
The incident clearly proves, the report adds, that these terror groups have a strong network of sleeper cells which helped further distribute the hate content uploaded from Pakistan. Thus, officials caution, this network can be used for major terror strikes also. Meanwhile, the government has asked technical experts in various security and intelligence agencies to develop expertise for early detection of such cyber crime in the future.