NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has directed the Cyber and Information Security (CIS) Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs to review and act against mobile applications used by terrorists, sources said on Friday.
The order follows intelligence and security agencies’ failure to track app-based communications between terrorists and overground workers involved in the Pahalgam terror attack.
Sources said the Minister gave the instructions during a recent meeting on national security strategy organised by the Intelligence Bureau. Following this, the CIS has set up a committee to examine the matter.
The sources said, since the formation of the panel senior officials of the CIS divisions has been interacting with intelligence and security agencies including the J&K Police to find out the details about such mobile apps, which were used for communication during the Pahalgam terror attacks and others, which they have noticed after the incident.
The NIA in its various investigations into terror attacks has found that terrorists often used encrypted apps to dodge national security apparatus.
A source in the agency said that in most cases involving foreign-based terrorists, investigators found operatives communicating through secure platforms like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and lesser-known apps such as Zangi and BiP.
The major concern for the security and investigative agencies is that the server for these apps are installed outside India, the sources said, adding that the charge sheet, which the NIA filed in the case relating to the 2024 grenade attack on the house of a retired Punjab Police officer in Chandigarh, revealed that accused Rohan Masih communicated with Happy Passia through Instagram and later talked to him through Zangi Messenger, BiP Messenger, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
The Home Minister had also instructed the CIS division to work with the IB to work on forming a multi-agency platform on the lines of the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC), a tool to gather and disseminate information on such matters, the sources said, adding that the intention is to bring representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeITY), the Defence Research Development Organisation (RDO) and academic institutions.