Threatening email sent to New Zealand team from India: Pakistan

Ground Report | New Delhi: Threatening email sent to New Zealand; Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry has alleged that the device with which the threat was sent to the New Zealand cricket team was linked to India.

Fawad Chaudhry said that 'this whole matter started when someone posted a fake post claiming to be the extremist Ehsullah Ehsan of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Threatening email sent to New Zealand

Fawad Chaudhry said that in August a fake post was made in the name of Ehsan saying that the New Zealand government should refrain from sending their team to Pakistan as they would be 'targeted' there.

ALSO READ: New Zealand cricket team refuses to travel to stadium in Pakistan: Reuters

He said that after this fake post, the Indian news website 'The Sunday Guardian' Bureau Chief Abhinandan Mishra published a news which claimed that the New Zealand team may be subjected to a terrorist attack in Pakistan. Fawad Chaudhry said, "Interestingly, Abhinandan Mishra has a strong relationship with former Vice President of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh."

Chaudhary said that on August 24, the wife of New Zealand opener Martin Guptill had received a threatening email. According to Fawad Chaudhry, "When we checked it, it was found that this email is not linked to any social media account and it was the only email sent from this ID."

ProtonMail

Chaudhary says that this email was sent through a secure service called ProtonMail. "Not much information is available about this email and we have asked Interpol for help in this regard," he said.

In a message sent from an e-mail account created in the name of Hamza Afridi, it was written that New Zealand did not do good to the people of Pakistan by canceling the visit and now they will continue to be in danger.

ALSO READ: New Zealand cricket team refuses to travel to stadium in Pakistan: Reuters

13 other e-mail accounts on the device

According to Fawad Chaudhry, the e-mail account was created 15 minutes before the mail was sent and when it was traced, it was discovered that the device from which the message was sent was in India. He said that the e-mail from this device was sent via VPN by setting the location of Singapore and there are 13 other e-mail accounts on the device, most of which have Indian names or names associated with Bollywood.

He said the investigation revealed that there was a strong possibility that the device belonged to a man named Om Prakash from Mumbai. "We hope that the New Zealand government will take a stand after these incidents come to light," he added.

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