A mobile application linked to Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, has been removed from the Google Play Store, following an expose by India Today TV. The app named ‘Achi Bateen’ was camouflaged as a platform to promote Islamic teachings.
It had more than 5,000 downloads from android users. The app hosted the preachings of several Pakistan-based religious leaders. Earlier, India Today had exposed the hidden links of its developers with the United Nations designated terrorist outfit.
From the outside, the mobile application did not exhibit an open association with the Jaish. However, the developers of the mobile application hosted two links on their page that contained soft copies of several books written by JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar.
The second link on the developer page also had voice recordings of Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar and close associate Talha Saif.
Asghar, the suspected mastermind behind the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight 814 and the Pathankot terrorist attack, is considered the operational head of the outfit.
The page also had old write-ups written by Masood Azhar under the pen-name ‘Saadi’, a pseudo-identity well established with the JeM chief. Masood Azhar’s close associate, Talha Saif, often reads out his weekly write-ups and circulates the audio recordings for his followers.
Delhi-based digital lab, Innefu Labs, which carried out a technical analysis of the app for India Today, identified certain anomalies in the app’s functionality. The application is connected to servers in the Contabo data centre based out of Germany.
“The app asked for permissions which were different from its functionality. This often happens when you want to add further functionalities to the app without asking for further permission from the users,” said Tarun Wig, co-founder of Innefu Lab.
According to Wig, the behaviour was similar to the Chinese UC browser application that has been already banned in India.
The app accessed the network and GPS (Global Positioning System) locations of the users. It could start automatically once the mobile device is booted and had the ability to continuously to run in the background.
It also had the access to the phone’s approximate and precise location, network, storage, media and other files.
Jaish-e-Mohammad has been sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) since 2001. The terror group has also been identified as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) by the United States Department of State.
