Indo-Pak tensions reach White House as counter petitions filed

Washington, Oct 4: The current tensions between India and Pakistan have reached the White House cyberspace, with two petitions being filed against both the countries and seeking response from the Obama Administration.

The White House has stopped accepting signatures for one of the petitions that sought to designate Pakistan as a 'state sponsor of terrorism', days after it gained a record half a million signatures which is five times the number needed to get a response from the Obama Administration.

Another petition claiming that India is "involved in spreading terrorism in its adjoining countries" has been submitted on the White House website.

The petition, filed against Pakistan, has been archived as it did not meet the "signature requirements", the White House said yesterday.

"Closed petition," said the petition page."This petition has been archived because it did not meet the signature requirements. It can no longer be signed," the White House said.

No further explanation has been given by the White House on closing the petition for signature.Normally, it is open for a month for the people to sign.

However, it looks like that some of the signatures might not have met the terms of participation for these petitions.

As a result, it is very well possible that some of these signatures could be removed if there is evidence of fraud.

But the White House is expected to have an official response to the petition within the 60 days' deadline.

The petition was created on September 21 by a person who identified himself by initials RG and the petition needed 1,00,000 signatures in 30 days to get a response from the White House.

The benchmark was reached in less than a week, and in less than two weeks, the petition crossed half a million signatures.

The petition comes after Congressman Ted Poe, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, along with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, introduced H R 6069, the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act in the House of Representatives.

Pakistani-Americans are now campaigning for a signature campaign to support the anti-India petition on the White House website.

"India is involved in spreading terrorism and in bloody proxy wars against its adjoining countries, particularly Islamic Republic of Pakistan," the petition alleged.

The petition, which was created in September by an individual who identified himself with initials SS, has received nearly 64,000 signatures.

It needs another 36,000 signatures to become eligible for getting a response from the Obama Administration.

PTI