'Kerala Cyber Warriors' hack Hindu Mahasabha's website, ask right-wing group's leader to 'lose weight before losing brain'

The Hindu Mahasabha’s website abhm.org.in on Thursday was hacked by one “GH057_R007”, a member of the ‘Kerala Cyber Warriors’. The landing page of the website displays the text “Hindu Mahasabha Murdabad” along with a photo of the right-wing group’s general secretary Puja Shakun Pandey. Calling Pandey a “hippopotamus”, the hacker group urged the government to arrest her and her “goons” for sedition. Addressing her directly, the website also says “lose your weight before you lose your brain b!tch”.

The development is in response to Pandey ‘celebrating’ Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary on Wednesday by recreating his assassination. According to an  India Today report, the ABHM celebrated Gandhi’s death by shooting at an effigy of Gandhi with a toy gun . She also compared her shooting at the effigy to the burning of Ravana’s effigy on Dussehra. The right-wing group also marked the ‘martyrdom’ of Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse on ‘Martyr’s Day’ in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh, according to the report. Before Pandey shot at the effigy, chants of “Mahatma Nathuram Godse amar rahe (Long live Mahatma Nathuram Godse)” were heard. In response to Pandey’s actions, the hackers wrote that “Gandhi ji always remained an inspiration for people globally to follow the right path, the path of nonviolence in all their actions.” Continuing its attack, the hackers said, “expect us.” At the bottom of the webpage, the hackers wrote “We are legion | We do not forgive | We do not forget | Expect us” in the colours of the Indian flag. Thursday’s incident is not the first time that the Kerala Cyber Warriors have hacked the Hindu Mahasabha’s website. In an August 2018 hacking attempt , the landing page of the website displayed a recipe to make ‘Kerala Spicy Nadan Beef Curry’. It is speculated that the hack was in response to  Swami Chakrapani’s controversial comments  on Kerala flood victims. In September 2017, the group hacked the website of a private school in Gurugram, after a seven-year-old child was murdered inside the school premises. The group also claimed responsibility for hacking the website of Bharatiya Janata Party’s  Jammu and Kashmir  unit in April 2018. It had demanded justice for the eight-year-old girl who was gang-raped and murdered in Kathua.