Suspected Pro-Pakistani Hackers Target Wrong Indian Website
NEW DELHI (AFP) - The rivalry between India and Pakistan spilled over into cyberspace again on Wednesday when pro-Pakistani hackers vandalized a website they believed belonged to Indian media magnate Subhash Chandra.
The website, www.zeetv.com, actually belongs to Rahul Dholakia, an Indian in the United States, and is registered in New Jersey.
"Zeetv.com is not our registered domain name," Sainath Iyer, spokesperson for Zee Television said from Bombay.
"Our site is called zeetelevision.com and it is well protected by firewalls," he added.
The motive for the hack appears to have been a recent program on Zee Television that highlighted the activities of the secret Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
A message left by the hackers reads: "Indians, you people are losers ... this is a piece of advice to Indians to free their hands from Kashmir and stop dreaming about it."
The hackers also said they had managed to deface several sites belonging to the Indian government and its ministries.
"Indian missiles, nuclear weapons and weapons control codes were already hacked" and if New Delhi wanted them back, it would have to leave Kashmir, the hackers claimed.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over divided Kashmir.
New Delhi blames Islamabad for providing military backing to Muslim fighters in the part of Kashmir it controls.
Pakistan denies the charge but offers open diplomatic support to what it terms the Kashmir freedom fighters.
