Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 21
Despite the ongoing political talks following the signing of the historic ‘Framework Agreement’ as well as ‘Agreed Position’ with NSCN (IM) and NNPGs respectively, a number of top leaders from both the groups featured in the Pegasus ‘Snoop list’, online news portal The Wire reported on July 21.
“… the phone numbers of several top leaders of the NSCN (I-M) were added to a list of numbers of persons of interest believed to be generated by an Indian client of an Israeli spyware company, The Wire can confirm,” it added.
According to the portal, Atem Vashum, Apam Muivah, Anthony Shimray and Phunthing Shimrang are among the top NSCN (I-M) leaders whose phone numbers have been found in the leaked database.
As per the leaked data, the phone number used by Atem “attracted interest in mid 2017, that of Muivah’s nephew Apam Muivah was added shortly thereafter,” the report claimed.
“Two phone numbers of Anthony Ningkhang Shimray, the commander in chief of the Naga Army of NSCN (I-M), also appear in the leaked records in late 2017,” it added.
The phone number of Phunthing Shimrang, the former commander in chief of the NSCN (I-M)’s Naga Army appear later, towards the first half of 2019, The Wire stated.
N Kitovi Zhimomi, the Convenor of the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) “appears on the list in mid-2019, at a time when he was playing a key role in the search for final terms of a settlement,” it added.
First released on July 18, the Pegasus Project is a collaborative investigation that involves more than 80 journalists from 17 news organisations in 10 countries coordinated by Forbidden Stories with the technical support of Amnesty International’s Security Lab, according to the portal.
The Wire, part of the project from India, has been releasing reports on the project since July 18.
According to the portal, Pegasus is sold by the Israeli company, NSO Group and quoted the company as saying that it only offers its spyware to “vetted governments”.
“The company refuses to make its list of customers public but the presence of Pegasus infections in India, and the range of persons that may have been selected for targeting, strongly indicate that the agency operating the spyware on Indian numbers is an official Indian one,” it reported earlier. The Wire, in an earlier report, maintained that leaked database of “thousands of telephone numbers believed to have been listed by multiple government clients of an Israeli surveillance technology firm includes over 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers.”
“It included those used by ministers, opposition leaders, journalists, the legal community, businessmen, government officials, scientists, rights activists and others, according to an investigation by The Wire and 16 media partners,” it then reported on July 18, when the first reports of the series were released.
When the reports were first published, the Government of India responded that India is a “robust democracy committed to ensuring the right to privacy to all its citizens as a fundamental right.”
“Government of India’s response to a Right to Information application about the use of Pegasus has been prominently reported by the media and is in itself sufficient to counter any malicious claims about the alleged association between the Government of India and Pegasus,” Additional Secretary, Electronics and Information Technology, Rajender Kumar said in response to journalists’ queries regarding snooping on prominent citizens, IANS news agency reported on July 18.
