Bangladeshi Hacker Group Attempts to Intimidate Indian Minority Organization Into Silence

SACRAMENTO: March 12, 2014 – A website advocating passage by U.S. Congress of a resolution supporting religious freedom in India was defaced on Tuesday night by a nationalist Bangladeshi hacker group known for attacking U.S. websites.

Bangladesh Grey Hat Hackers (BGHH) replaced content at www.OFMI.org with scrolling text saying, “Do Some security Improvements On your Website,” a picture of a man who is armed with two assault rifles walking towards a crescent moon, and a Bangladeshi flag. The hacker claimed credit in additional text stating: “H@cked By V3N7UR3.” The group has previously claimed credit for defacing random U.S. websites which, according to news reports, “appear to belong to various businesses.” [1] The OFMI website remained compromised until shortly after noon on Wednesday.

A screenshot of the image used by BGHH to deface www.OFMI.org.

In various statements by the group, BGHH claims to be motivated by a desire to defend Islam. For instance, after hacking American sites, they stated: “Stop killing Bangladeshi’s at Indian Border. Stop killing Muslims in Burma. Stop killing Muslims in Palestine.” Their decision to target OFMI’s website, however, is confusing since the organization not only states it exists “to advance individual liberties of Christians, Buddhists, Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs, and all Moolnivasi people of South Asia,” but is also actively supporting passage of H. Res. 417 by the U.S. Congress. The resolution specifically cites Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs as targets of anti-minority violence and “calls for religious freedom and related human rights to be included in the United States–India Strategic Dialogue.” [2]

“This attempt to intimidate us into silence is truly nonsensical and constitutes an unacceptable interference with our ongoing efforts to speak on behalf of oppressed minorities in India,” said Bhajan Singh, Founding Director of OFMI. “We are encouraging the U.S. Congress to condemn the massacre of Muslims, among other minorities, in India at the same time as this group of vandals is wasting our time and resources. House Resolution 417 would recognize the sufferings of Indian citizens who are victims of religious violence, especially the Christians murdered in Odisha in 2008 and the thousands of Muslims slaughtered in genocides in 1992 in Mumbai and in 2002 in Gujarat.”

In 1992, Indian MP L.K. Advani incited a mob of Hindus to destroy the Babri mosque at religious site in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh which Muslims and Hindus have contested since at least 1853. Subsequently, genocidal attacks took place against Muslims in several Indian cities, which, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), “left an estimated 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead.” [3] In its 2009 report, the commission stated: “There has been little justice for the victims of riots between Hindus and Muslims after the 1992 destruction of the Babri mosque…. Few have been successfully prosecuted. For instance, several high-profile trials that commenced over 10 years after the riots resulted in acquittals.” [4] L.K. Advani then became Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2000 to 2004.

In 2002, while Advani was serving as India’s Deputy PM, genocidal attacks against Muslims again took place, this time in the state of Gujarat. According to USCIRF’s 2011 report:

“Hindu mobs killed 1,200 to 2,500 Muslims across Gujarat, looted or destroyed thousands of mosques and Muslim-owned businesses, and forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes. Christians were also victims in Gujarat, and many churches were destroyed. India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), an official government body, found evidence of premeditation in the killings by members of Hindu nationalist groups, complicity by Gujarat state government officials, and police inaction in the midst of attacks on Muslims. In 2007, the investigative newsmagazine Tehelka revealed further evidence of state government and police complicity in the riots, including the complicity of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.” [5]

Narendra Modi is now running for Prime Minister of India under the Bharatiya Janata Party ticket. Indian voters will make their decision in May 2014, but the U.S. State Department cast its vote on Modi years ago after its investigators, independent human rights bodies, and whistleblowers from Modi’s own administration confirmed his collusion in the 2002 Gujarat Genocide. In 2005, the State Department denied Modi a visitor’s visa under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), which prohibits entry into the U.S. of non-citizens “who were responsible for or directly carried out particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” According to USCIRF’s 2012 report: “This provision has been invoked only once: in March 2005, it was used to exclude Chief Minister Narendra Modi of Gujarat state in India due to his complicity in the 2002 riots that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,100 to 2,000 Muslims.” [6]

“Cyber-attacks on websites like OFMI merely impede efforts to pursue justice for murdered Muslims,” says Bhajan Singh. “This group apparently also vandalized Israeli sites in 2012 and Indonesian sites in 2013. The attack on Israeli sites, after which BGHH called the Jewish people a ‘cancerous tumor,’ reflects the ideology of hatred blinding the minds of these hackers, and the attack on sites in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, is a reminder that hatred always ends in self-destruction.”

The cyber-attack on Israeli websites happened in October 2012, when BGHH released a statement declaring: “You have no rights in the cyber space & in the world. You guys are nothing more than a cancerous tumor. We will hit you again & again & again.” [7] The antagonistic group of hackers defaced approximately 900 Indonesian sites in July 2012, stating: “First of all take my greetings of Ramadan. As you all know we are in a cyber war with the hackers of your country…. Now you can ask if we don’t deface Muslim’s sites then why we are attacking Indonesian sites? Believe me. We are forced to do so with your hacking teams, who wanted war with us several times before.” [8]

“This cyber-attack is a reminder that violence perpetuates violence and peace only comes through the decision to lay down arms and start campaigning for justice instead of bloodshed,” said Pieter Singh, an advisor to OFMI. “Hacking the OFMI website did not directly physically harm anyone, but it represents support for the architects of genocide and it is a direct insult against the innocent minorities of India whose blood cries out from the ground for justice. However, as a word of caution, let us not forget that Hindu agents of the Indian State have been caught on several occasions engaging in terrorist actions under the guise of Islam, as in the case of the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing and the 2000 Chittisinghpura Massacre, for the purpose of defaming Muslims to justify oppressive acts against them.”

Citations:
[1] Kovacs, Eduard. “Protest: Bangladeshi Hackers Deface 13 Sites Hosted on US Server.” Softpedia News Center, September 14, 2012.
[2] 113th CONGRESS, 1st Session, H. RES. 417, Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on November 18, 2013.
[3] United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Annual Report 2011: India Chapter, p. 253.
[4] USCIRF. Annual Report 2009: India Chapter, p. 3.
[5] USCIRF. Annual Report 2011: India Chapter, pp. 247-248.
[6] USCIRF. Annual Report 2012: India Chapter, p. 29.
[7] Kovacs, Eduard. “54 Israeli Sites Defaced by Bangladesh Grey Hat Hackers.” Softpedia News Center, October 30, 2012.
[8] Hamill, Jasper. “Cyber jihad as Indonesia and Bangladesh BLOW EACH OTHER off the web.” The Register, July 30, 2013.