Pakistan’s Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said that the security threat issued to New Zealand Cricket Team originated from India, sharing various details about the device and email IDs.
While addressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the minister said that the entire saga started due to a fake post by someone claiming to be Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant Ehsanullah Ehsan.
Fawad said that in August, a fake post was created under Ehsan’s name which told the New Zealand cricket board and government to refrain from sending the team to Pakistan as it would be “targeted”.
He said that following after this post, the bureau chief of The Sunday Guardian, Abhinandan Mishra, published an article claiming that the team may face a terror threat in Pakistan citing the same post by Ehsan.
According to its website, The Sunday Guardian was founded by politician MJ Akbar, who served as the minister for external affairs in the Modi-led BJP government till 2018.
“Interestingly, [Mishra] has strong links with [former Afghanistan vice president] Amrullah Saleh,” he said.
He said that on August 24, New Zealand opener Martin Guptill’s wife received an email threatening her husband from ID with the username “Tehreek-i-Labbaik”.
“When we investigated further, we discovered some facts. Firstly, this email is not affiliated with any social media network […] and only one email has been generated from this account,” he said.
The minister added that the email was sent via ProtonMail, a secure service. “The details [of the email] are not available and we have requested Interpol to assist us and tell us how it was generated.”
Despite these threats New Zealand did not cancel the tour at this point and travelled to Pakistan.
However just minutes before the first ODI New Zealand cancelled the entire tour saying they were aware of a “specific and credible” threat but did not give details.
Indian Device Used?
Fawad Chaudhry said a second threatening email was sent to the New Zealand Cricket team using the ID, Hamza Afridi.
He said that when authorities probed the email, they discovered that it was sent from a device associated with India. “It was sent using a virtual private network (VPN) so the location was shown as Singapore.”
He said that the same device had 13 other IDs, nearly all of which were Indian names. “All IDs were made using the names of Indian actors and celebrities. Only the name Hamza Afridi is different to show that this email was generated from Pakistan.
He said that the user of the particular device had been identified as Omprakash Mishra from Maharashtra. “The device used to send the threat to the New Zealand team belonged to India. A fake ID was used but it was sent from Maharashtra.”
The minister added that the interior ministry had registered a case and had requested Interpol for assistance and information on the Tehreek-i-Labbaik ProtonMail and the ID of Hamza Afridi.
“This whole threat was primarily generated from India.”
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