Chandigarh, 25th September, 2008: Senior BJP Leader and Punjab State Investor Cell Chief, Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal termed the UPA Government “ignorant” about the misuse of Information Technology by the Terrorists. Speaking at a Press Conference convened at Press Club, Chandigarh, aggrieved that Terrorists are openly using Websites to propagate hatred through inflammatory Articles, Pictures and Videos amongst muslims motivating them to raise funds, organize advocacy and volunteer terror activities for these outfits.

Social Networking sites such as Orkut and Facebook are helping these perpetrators to Communicate, Collaborate and Network with the likeminded. Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, Live etc Index these Websites and inadvertently help these terror outfits by routing Internet users to these Websites. Popular Websites such as Youtube provide these fanatic minds complete recipe to make sophisticated bombs from household items and without any technical expertise. Grewal further stated that Terrorists can now plan and execute terror activities without apprehending arrest as emerging technologies such as Google Earth and Google Maps provide substantial information about vital demographic know how and even Real time GPS Tracking.

Technologies such as Voice over IP and Chinese Phones without any IMEI Number or a forged IMEI Number help them to communicate and collaborate with their peers without fearing any identity loss. Terrorists have been using advanced cryptographic techniques to encode their messages into Photos and share these Normal looking Photos with their Peers and Bosses sitting in Pakistan through websites such as Flickr and Picaso without fearing the message being decoded by Intelligence agencies.

Recent blasts in Ahmedabad and Delhi have shown that Terrorists are equipped with sophisticated software to scan “Unsecured WI-FI Networks” of ignorant Internet users and hack them to route Internet Calls to detonate Bombs and send terror emails to claim responsibility of these terrorist attacks. So, Internet have been misused by these Terror Outfits to organize Advocacy, motivate Educated Muslims through Inflammatory Content, Generate Funds, disseminate Information about Design and Development of Bombs, collaborate and communicate with peers and bosses, help plan and execute Terror attacks.

Grewal demanded that Government immediately take remedies to ensure that Internet shouldn’t be misued by these terror outfits. He further insisted that Government should recruit a dedicated team of technocrats armed with latest technology in the proposed federal agency to counter cyber terrorism. Websites run by these terror outfits should immediately be blocked. IT companies such as Google, Yahoo etc should be asked to self regulate their content and provide intelligence of any suspicious activity on their websites. Chinese Mobile Phones without IMEI Numbers or with Forged IMEI Numbers should be immediately banned and Telecom operators be instructed to stop all such telephone connections and provide the list of all these connections to Intelligence agencies. Internet Service Providers be asked to educate their subscribers and ensure that WI-FI Networks of their Subscribers are secured. He further stated that he will write to governments of top 20 countries known for high usage of Internet and Mobile Phones including India, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Japan, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Russia, South Korea, Mexico, Spain, Indonesia, Vietnam and Iran to issue strict instructions to oppress such Terrorist activities. Other office bearers of Punjab State Investor Cell present in the Press Conference were Ashok Garg (Mohali), Nipun Sharma, Shakha Bagga (Hoshiarpur), Sandeep Tony (Jaitu), Rajindra Trehan, Rajesh Pathak Bittu (Dhandari), Chamkaur Singh Pandher (Kohara), Seeta Gogna (Ahmedgarh), Navdeep Singh (Mullanpur), Pradeep Jain (Jodhan), Deepak Sharma (Malseehan), Vijaymal Doraha, Jaspal Lotey Khanna, Gagan Singla, Ashok Malhotra (Jalandhar), Nindi Dhanglian, Lucky Sabarwal, Ajay Gupta were also present.