AASU, Ulfa leaders also on Pegasus list

Phone numbers of All Assam Students Union chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya and leader of the pro-talks faction of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), Anup Chetia, apart from a Manipur writer were potentially targeted for surveillance in 2018-19 using Israeli firm NSO’s Pegasus software, an investigative consortium reported on Wednesday.

Bhattacharya’s phone number was included as a possible target for hacking by the software less than a month before the Union ministry of home affairs announced the reconstitution of a high-level committee to implement a clause of the Assam Accord on July 16, 2019, according to a report by online news portal The Wire, which is part of the 17-member media consortium.