North-East exodus: 80 Internet pages, user-accounts blocked

The government is learnt to have ordered blocking of 80 more Internet pages and user-accounts on social networking sites, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, to avoid panic among people of northeastern region living across India.

All these sites were found hosting inflammatory and hateful content, spreading rumours and inciting violence targeting the people from North-East, government sources said.

The government had on August 18 issued instructions to block 76 Internet sites, which included web-pages and some websites, and had said that bulk of the rumours that triggered panic among people of North-eastern states in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were sourced from Pakistan.

"We have found inflammatory and objectionable contents on some pages of Facebook and Google. Some user-accounts at Twitter were also found spreading similar contents. All together, around 80 such pages and accounts have been ordered to be blocked today," the sources said.

The rumours about a possible attacks have led to mass exodus of people from North-East from many places including Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Sunday asked his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik to crackdown on elements based in that country that were using social media networking sites to whip up communal sentiments and spreading hate in India.

According to a report prepared by the Home Ministry, a Pakistan-based hardline group is suspected to have been involved in doctoring images and spreading them across social networking sites to create panic among people of northeastern region living across India.