New Delhi, July 18 (PTI): The government has ordered the blocking of 18 websites to check terror and hate messages popping up on the Internet following the Mumbai blasts.

The department of telecom has asked 150 Internet service providers to block 18 websites which could be used by terror groups to communicate and spread provocative messages. The websites www.dalitstan.org and hinduunity.org are among the blocked sites.

Although DoT and department of information technology officials declined comment, Deepak Maheshwari, secretary of the Internet Service Providers Association of India, said the association has received the instructions from the government.

“The instructions have been received from the government and the sites have been blocked accordingly,” he said.

This is the first time the government has ordered blocking of such a large number of websites at one go.

According to the new telecom policy, the computer emergency response team under the department of information technology is the first line of defence to prevent aggression in cyberspace.

The software industry has reacted angrily to the block. “The Centre’s decision is neither desirable nor feasible,” Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said in Chennai. “The Internet should be a free medium. If you stop the media, rumours float very fast and it is not desirable.”

In the past six years, DoT has blocked over 100 websites.