Pakistan-based group hacks NIT Srinagar website, posts anti-India messages

The website of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar was hacked on Monday evening, allegedly by a Pakistani hackers’ group and “Free Kashmir” messages were posted on it, a senior official of the institute said.

As of Tuesday afternoon the website was not accessible. Following error message was displayed: “Service Unavailable. HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.”

“The attack took place last evening and a Pakistani group called Pak Cyber Skullz claimed credit. We are working to get the site up again and it should be done soon,” said the official.

A senior cyber police official in Srinagar said that the department has not yet received any complaint from the institute.

The original message pasted on the defaced website, whose screenshots are doing the rounds now, said, “Go Modi Go”.

It continued: “Do You Know Why You Got HACKED? Free Kashmir. Freedom is our goal…… India means the territory of India excluding the State of Jammu and Kashmir (sic).”

Claiming that Kashmir is a “militarized governance,” the hackers said people of the state want freedom.

“Everyday 100s of innocent people are abused, raped and even killed in Kashmir by the Indian army, a third of the deaths are children,” the group alleged.

The hacking incident came a day after Indian cricket team thrashed Pakistan in ICC Champions Trophy. Last year, clashes had broken out in the campus after many Kashmiri students had reportedly celebrated India’s defeat against West Indies in T20 World Cup.