'Let the games begin': Hacker at centre of PM Office audio leaks tells how Pakistan 'acquired Israeli software for spying'

LAHORE – The alleged hacker behind the scandalous audio leaks of the Prime Minister’s Office made new shocking revelations on Thursday.

In a series of tweets, the ‘hacker’, who goes by the name @Indishellgp, claimed, "Of two Islamic countries that don’t recognize Israel, the smaller one facilitated the bigger one to acquire controlled software from the Jewish state. The smaller country is headed by a female."

Pegasus, a spyware developed by an Israeli company, has been making headlines for months as this ‘hacker for hire’ company provided services to intelligence agencies and governments around the world for spying on rivals, journalists, activists and dissidents.

According to a tweet by the 'hacker', "Officers from the Strategic Plans Division, Signal Corps, ISSRA, ISI, and the PS-COAS, led a secret delegation to the smaller state to formalize the procurement. Equipment and training were both part of the agreement.

"Takeaway here is that the military high command did not trust the ISI to be the sole operating body in this venture. Perhaps indicatory of the military’s long fear of an over-powerful intelligence branch.

"A substrate injection was prompted into the victim’s device allowing it to be used for surveillance at will. 

"PM office was never bugged. But, in the next few years; every phone of interest in Pakistan was latched with Pegasus. Political heads, executives, provincial/federal legislators, senators, judicial membs, journalists, secretaries, and even the top/middle brass were surveilled."

The ‘hacker’ further claimed that "with different political loyalties in the military, a tug of war began with different factions releasing different audio snippets to their advantage."

"When a certain general in a very important office, began a some what aggressive campaign to support an incumbent government, he was removed and relocated. This created a gap which would not be filled to the current day,” one of the tweets read.

In the end, the ‘hacker’ highlighted that "the military always has one advantage over its civilian counterpart; information."

"But now the tide has changed. I have the same tranche of audios and material data that the military has been collecting for years. I have everything. Let the games begin."

In a previous tweet, the 'hacker’ had warned 'Mr. 13' in a veiled reference towards some army general. "Your time is up Gen...", it read.

So far, only a few leaks have surfaced that include conversations of PM Shehbaz, former PM Imran Khan, Maryam Nawaz and some cabinet members. However, the ‘hacker’ claims to have even more controversial data that he plans to release tomorrow (Friday).