Amid the controversy in NIT Srinagar after protests against a Hindu student for sharing an old video of Hamas founder Sheik Hussain Yousef’s son Mosab making allegedly blasphemous comments in Prophet Muhammad and Islam, it has come to notice that the website of the institution has gone down. While the reason for the site going down is not known, it is suspected that it could be a hacking attack linked to the protests.
A visit to the website of NIT Srinagar shows the message “Sorry for the inconvenience but we’re performing some maintenance at the moment. If you need to you can always contact us, otherwise we’ll be back online shortly!” It links an email-ID to which mails can be sent.
While the message says that the site is undergoing ‘some maintenance,’ an important fact is that some other pages of the site are directly accessible, while the homepage of the site is down and showing the message. When one searches for NIT Srinagar, several links to pages in the site are shown in search results, apart from the home page. While clicking the homepage results in the error message, clicking in other links land the respective pages, like Admissions 2023, Academic Affairs, Departments etc.
After opening these pages, the links there can be used to navigate to other pages, except the homepage. This means that most of the site is working properly, but only some pages including the homepage is not working.
If it was a site maintenance, the entire site would have gone down, not just the homepage. Therefore, it is suspected that it is a hacking attack, and the attackers have targeted the homepage of the site.
OpIndia has written to NIT Srinagar requesting a clarification on the website, and this report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The reason for suspecting an external attack is the controversy over a Hindu student named Prathmesh, who has been facing massive protests for sharing an old video containing allegedly anti-Islam comments. Prathmesh had shared an already viral video of Mosab Hassan Yousef, the disowned son of a senior Hamas terrorist group leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, where he was making critical comments about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
This prompted a massive protest against by Islamists at the institution’s campus, with protestors chanting ‘sar tan se juda’ (call for beheading) slogans. Subsequently, an FIR was registered against the Hindu students for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Prathmesh has been booked under sections 295A, 153A and 153 of the Indian Penal Code.
Hacking websites of organisations embroiled in controversies have becoming common. Last month the website of ABES College in Ghaziabad was defaced after controversy over a student was thrown off stage for chanting Jai Shree Ram at an event. Earlier this year, the website of the Vansthali Public School in Delhi was attacked after some Hindu students had alleged that the school had forced them to cut sacred threads tied on their wrists. A poster of lord Ram was also torn by a teacher in the school, and a student who said ‘Jai Shree Ram’ was suspended.
