Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter alleges her phone was hacked by Pegasus spyware

Srinagar: Iltija Mufti, daughter of former J&K Chief Minister and President of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti, alleged on Wednesday that her cell phone has been ‘hacked’ by Pegasus spyware.

“Got an Apple alert that my phone been hacked by Pegasus which GOI (Government of India) has admittedly procured and weaponised to harass critics and political opponents,” Iltija Mufti wrote on X.

She also accused the BJP of snooping on women leaders who do not toe their line.

“BJP shamelessly snoops on women only because we refuse to toe their line. How low will you stoop? ” Iltija Mufti added.

Pegasus spyware was developed by Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group (founded in 2010) for eavesdropping on mobile phones and harvesting their data.

The spyware has been highly controversial, used to track politicians, government leaders, human rights activists, dissidents, and journalists.

Iltija Mufti has been at the forefront of her mother’s political campaign participating vigorously in the poll campaign of her mother in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

Mehbooba Mufti was defeated by Mian Altaf Ahmad of the National Conference in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha polls by a huge margin of over 2 lakh votes.

All other candidates in the fray in the Lok Sabha election in that constituency lost their security deposit.