Facing ire for joining hands with terror groups giving them a platform to spread their anti-India agenda, the Google play – the official app store for Android apps from Google has now removed the application named “2020 Sikh referendum”, which is a Sikh extremist movement sponsored by the terror state of Pakistan to destabilise India through its extremist activities in the Indian state of Punjab, from its play store.
The tech giant had faced severe backlash from various social media users for its decision to allow space for a pro-Khalistan terror organisation to push its propaganda on the internet. Punjab chief minister, Captain Amarinder Singh had also urged the Central government to persuade Google in this regard and had also asked the Director-General of Police to coordinate with Central security agencies to tackle the threat resulting from the launch of the app.
Acceding to the demands, Google has now taken off the app which is published by a developer named Icetech, which has published another app named Voice of Punjab on the Play store. This app is also spreading hatred and promoting the Khalistan movement.
After pushing making Islamic literature on Ghazwa-e-Hind available on its play store, the tech-giant Google had also allowed space for the pro-Khalistan terror organisation at the beginning of the month.
During analysis of the said application and the website in the DITAC Lab, Punjab, it was found that the data of voters registered through the App was also linked and stored in the webserver of the website, namely www.yes2Khalistan.org, created and handled by ‘Sikhs For Justice’ (SFJ), an Association banned by the Government of India.
Based on these findings, the Cyber Crime Centre of Bureau of Investigation, Punjab, had moved to get the App removed from the Google Play Store and the website blocked for usage in India.
