Umar Khalid, activists, union leaders among Pegasus targets: Report

Prominent activists, academicians, trade unionists, and students, including Bela Bhatia, Umar Khalid, and Anand Bharti, were among potential targets for snooping using Israeli spyware Pegasus, according to a leaked database.

Their phone numbers were part of the leaked database accessed by the non-profit French media Forbidden Stories and shared with an international media consortium, which includes The Washington Post, The Guardian and The Wire.

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The Wire reported that the database included the numbers of Dalit activist Ashok Bharti, former Jawahar Lal Nehru University students Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, and Banjyotsna Lahiri and academic and chronicler of life in Naxal-dominated regions Bela Bhatia.

It also included railway union leader Shiv Gopal Mishra, labour rights activist Anjani Kumar, anti-coal mining activist Alok Shukla, Delhi University professor Saroj Giri, peace activist Shubhranshu Choudhary and activist Ipsa Shatakshi.

Also read — Pegasus row: Congress demands probe by Joint Parliamentary Committee

"Without digital forensics, it is not possible to conclusively establish whether their phones were hacked or infected. But their appearance on the list suggests that they were persons of interest to an unidentified client of the NSO Group that was focused on India," The Wire report said.