Indian Muslim Body Terms US Snooping, Criminal Act

New Delhi, July 7, IRNA – Terming the US snooping a criminal act, India’s apex Muslim body, Jamaat-e-Islamic Hind (JIH) Saturday urged the government to oppose the US surveillance. The revelation of latest top secret documents of US National Security Agency leaked by former CIA officer Edward Snowden that the Indian embassy in the US is among the list of 38 diplomatic missions which were being spied upon by American intelligence agencies is detrimental and has posed threats to the freedom and privacy of these 38 nations including India, said Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, Ameer (all India President) of JIH, here Saturday. With the help of data hacking, mobile and email interception, NSA is not only keeping an eye on India and other countries but also obtained millions and trillions of documents, he added. He said that JIH takes this surveillance and snooping as not only an immoral act but also an illegal and criminal act on the part of the United States. The President of JIH made the announcement while briefing media persons on various national and international issues including the military coup in Egypt and US surveillance. Umari further said that it is unfortunate that our External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid has defended this US surveillance program. “We urge the Government of India to oppose the US snooping in the greater interest of the nation,” said Umari. According to the Guardian newspaper, only in March 2013 NSA procured 14 billion documents from Iran, 13.5 billion from Pakistan, 12.7 billion from Jordan, 7.6 billion from Egypt, and 6.3 billion from India. Analysts have revealed that they are busy doing all this against India since 2005-2006./end