Pak Nationals 'Using Indian Flag To Flee' Ukraine, Posts Embassy. Foreign Office Says Accounts Hacked
The Foreign Office's statement came after posts from the embassy said that all missions of the country were ordered to divert funds to Ukraine for evacuating Pakistani nationals.
New Delhi: Social media accounts of Pakistan's Embassy in Algeria have been targeted by hackers, following which, the country's Foreign Office clarified that the fake posts were not put up by the mission.
The statement came after social media posts from the embassy claimed that "till date, no Pakistani nationals had been evacuated from war-hit Ukraine and that the embassy did not have funds to pay its employees."
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The purported post stated that all missions of the country were "ordered to divert funds to Ukraine for evacuating Pakistani nationals." It added that the embassy should turn to India for funds as Pakistani nationals were “using the Indian flag to flee”.
The ministry of foreign affairs shared the information on the hacking of social media accounts on Wednesday. Responding on Twitter, spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said, "The Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts of the Embassy of Pakistan in Algeria have been hacked."
The Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts of the Embassy of Pakistan in Algeria have been hacked.
— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) March 2, 2022
All messages being posted through these accounts are not from Pakistan Embassy in Algeria.
"All messages being posted through these accounts are not from Pakistan Embassy in Algeria," added the tweet.
Later, the Pakistan embassy in Algeria also tweeted saying, “Some baseless and unwarranted stories/news were spread through these accounts. All these news/stories have no truth in them and totally unfounded. All the above accounts have been restored.
— Pakistan Embassy Algeria (@PakinAlgeria) March 2, 2022
It is perhaps not the first such instance. In December 2021, the social media account of the Pakistan Embassy in Argentina was hacked, according to an ANI report. In that incident, hackers targeted the Instagram account of the embassy.
Last year, the official Twitter handle of Pakistan's embassy in Serbia criticised the Imran Khan-led government over record-breaking inflation and alleged non-payment of salaries.
At that time, the Foreign Office spokesperson stated that Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts of the country's mission in Belgrade were "hacked".
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