The Union Home Secretary R K Singh has said that rumours that triggered panic among people of northeastern states in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were sourced from Pakistan. He said in New Delhi that 74 websites were identified and blocked where morphed images were uploaded. He said bulk of these images were uploaded in Pakistan. Photographs of people who had died in cyclones and earthquakes were circulated as victims of violence in Myanmar on these websites. Mr. Singh said 34 more websites have been identified and Government was in the process of blocking them soon. He said the issue will be raised with Pakistan.

Government has already imposed a 15-day ban on bulk SMSs and MMSs. The Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has also said that he suspected from the very beginning that foreign forces were behind the rumours which forced thousands of people of northeast to flee Karnataka and other states. Gogoi said the state intelligence had inputs about this information.