Experts: DM is red herring

Udumula Sudhakar Reddy
28th November 2008
Deccan Muhajideen claims role
City police anti terror experts feel that the email of the “Deccan Mujahideen” claiming responsibility for the Mumbai attacks was probably meant to divert attention from the “foreign hand”.
Though the AP police has no information of this new outfit, sleuths did not rule out its existence as the email also talks about the “liberation of erstwhile Muslim-ruled states”.
This has made intelligence officials suspect a Lashkar-e-Tayabba link. They pointed out that in a congregation of LeT members in Lahore four years ago, its chief Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed said that liberating Hyderabad and Junagarh was top on the agenda of the outfit.
“Give back the states you have captured from Muslims,” says the email of Deccan Mujahideen. “If you return our states back we will lead the life as per the Islamic law. Till then blood will be shed for blood.” The email challenges anti-terror squads and says, “We know how to take revenge. We know how to play the game. We will go stronger when we are humiliated and harassed.” Experts say that the tone of the email had similarities to those sent earlier by the Indian Mujahideen which also spoke about alleged harassment of Muslims and homegrown resistance.
“Most of the operatives of the Hizbul Mujahideen are from the Deccan area, including its Indian chief Riyaz Bhatkal,” said a senior police officer. “Indian Mujahideen also has its base mostly in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.” He added that the Deccan Mujahideen could be an offshoot of the LeT like the Indian Mujahideen.
Meanwhile, two persons who identified themselves as Sadullah and Babar spoke to a TV channel claiming to be a representative of Deccan Mujadideen.
An SIT official said the police had no record on them. He added that Sadullah spoke in a Sindhi accent. Babar asked for ransom to release the hostages. The authenticity of both calls could not be established.
(with bala chauhan in Bangalore
Pak hacker messes up state sites
BY U. SUDHAKAR REDDY
HYDERABAD

27th Nov 2008
A malicious hack er, who claimed to be from Pakistan, has messed up the official websites of the state government and AP Police. The hacker, who defaced www.cidap.gov.in, www.aponline.gov.in, and gad.ap.gov.in, termed it revenge for the hacking of the OGRA (Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority) website of Pakistan by a group of Indian hackers who termed themselves Guards of Hindustan.
Officials said Pakistani hackers also attacked websites of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Indian Railways and Indian Insti tute of Remote Sensing along with several other Indian websites.
The hacker, with e-mail ID ZombiE_KsA@hotmail.co m, said in his posts that he was loyal to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and belonged to the Pakistan Cyber Army (www.pakbugs.org).
AP authorities have realised the vulnerabilities in state systems after the hacking.
“We realised on Wednesday that the website of the CID was hacked,” said the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Mr A.K. Khan. “There is no loss of data as it is a public site. It can be the handiwork of professional hackers or that of the crazy pranksters.
We are probing into it.” The general administration department webpage containing phone numbers of district collectors was also defaced by the hacker on Monday.
Cyber forensic experts expressed concern at the hacking of AP Pol Net and other government systems which hold much confiden tial information.
“This time they defaced only public sites,” said a cyber forensic expert. “But they may intrude into these websites and steal vital information.” The aponline wesbsite was hacked for the second time. In March 21, 2006, a Turkish hacker had attacked the same site.