A report by The Guardian under the Pegasus Project revealed that the Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan was chosen as a “person of interest by India in 2019.”
The Guardian reported on Monday that telephone numbers linked to least 14 heads of states and governments, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were among the 50,000 numbers of people whose phones were hacked by the Pegasus spyware.
The report says that Khan’s number was added in the batch that included many more Indian phone numbers in mid-2019.
The year 2019 was one of the most vulnerable times between the two countries as both the nuclear neighbour countries were on the verge of war with each other and had conducted air strikes in each other’s territories.
The Indian Air Force planes struck an alleged terror camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Balakot on February 26, while the Pakistanis conducting a retaliatory attack into Indian territory a day later.
Various countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and UAE intervened in order to de-escalate the atmosphere.
The Wire had reported that “the numbers of those in the database include over 40 journalists, three major opposition figures, one constitutional authority, two serving ministers in the Narendra Modi government, current and former heads and officials of security organisations and scores of businesspersons”.