'Apologise to Muslims': Hackers' Message on Thane Police Site Amid Prophet Row

The Thane Police website was hacked on Tuesday amid tensions following Nupur Sharma's remarks against the Prophet.

Image used for representational purposes only.

(Photo: Erum Gour/The Quint)

The website of the Thane city police commissionerate was hacked on Tuesday, 14 June, with a message calling for the central government to apologise to Muslims all over the world.

This comes after clashes took place in several parts of the country over former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma's remarks against Prophet Muhammad.

The message on the website said that it had been hacked by "one hat cyber team".

"Hello Indian Government, Hello everyone. Again and again you make trouble with the problem of the Islamic Religion. Hurry up and apologise to Muslims all over the world! We don't stand still when our apostle is insulted," the message read.

Confirming the hack, Thane Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Cyber Cell, Sunil Lokhande said, "The website of Thane Police was hacked today morning at around 4 am. The investigation was done by the cyber team. Technical experts recovered the data and website has been restored. Further probe is underway."

More Than 500 Websites Hacked, Official Says

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Cyber Cell ordered the restoration of different government websites which were hacked and began an enquiry into the matter.

"We have restored several websites, and many more are yet to be done. More than 70 websites have been attacked, of which three are government websites, followed by private university websites. Hacked websites are more than 500," Maharashtra Cyber Cell Additional Director General (ADG) Madhukar Pandey was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

He further said that several cyber hackers had "united" to hack different websites due to the ongoing communal tensions in the country, adding that the names of Malaysia and Indonesia had also come up.

"We have not got any information about whether this gang is operating in India or not," the ADG added.

(With inputs from ANI.)