Bulk of rumours sourced from Pakistan: Centre

PTI

New Delhi, 18 Aug 2012: Bulk of the rumours that triggered panic among people of northeastern states in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were sourced from Pakistan, Union Home Secretary R K Singh said today.

 

"A total of 76 websites were identified where morphed images were uploaded and bulk of these were uploaded in Pakistan," Singh told PTI.

 

"We believe it is highly reprehensible. I think it needs to be made known to everybody that this is something that is being done from Pakistan. The bulk of it has been done from Pakistan," he said.

 

He said all these websites have since been blocked. As a step towards rumours being spread, Government has imposed a 15-day ban on bulk SMSes and MMSes.

 

Singh said bodies of victims of cyclones and earthquakes in different part of the world were shown as victims of violence in Myanmar in the morphed images.

 

Apart from these websites, 34 more have been identified and Gocvernment was in the process of blocking them soon, he said.

 

Driven by rumours, over 30,000 northeast people have left Bangalore fearing attacks on them while many of them have fled Chennai and Pune in the last three days, notwithstanding assurances from the Centre and the state governments.