MUMBAI: Online hacker group Anonymous targeted websites of the Supreme Court of India and the All India Congress Committee on Thursday to protest Internet censorship. 

Anonymous launched Operation India with atweet that said, "Namaste #India, your time has come to trash the current government and install a new one. Good luck." 

A YouTube video uploaded on May 15 by user Sen0nymous, titled 'Operation India Engaged', issued a call to action for fellow hackers. The video stated, "It has been known that the Government of India and its ministers are committing aristocracy. The idea of democracy remains an idea only." 

"We were and are watching closely all activities of the Government and its ministers. Many ministers were and are charged with severe cases of corruption. They do not care. They do not care for the injustice happening. They do not care for the freedom being snatched."

"The Government has been covering up its activities and hiding the facts from its citizens. It has imposed the IT Act which allows it to censor the internet as it seems fit. None other than the Department of Telecommunications needs to be blamed. One cannot block on purview of security concerns." 

On Thursday afternoon, the websites of the Supreme Court (supremecourtofindia.nic.in) and the All India Congress Committee (aicc.org.in) were attacked and taken down. The Supreme Court's portal was back after a few hours, but the hackers said AICC will remain down the whole day. 

The Twitter account for Operation India, @opindia_revenge, claimed it had also targeted the website of the Department of Telecommunications (dot.gov.in), but it was quickly back.

Similarly, Sen0nymous reported that the Delhi government's portal (delhi.gov.in) had been targeted , but it was back soon after.

The attacks come after the government asked Internet Service Providers to block websites such as The Pirate Bay, a file-sharing site, as well as video-sharing service Vimeo among others. 

Anonymous is a disbanded group of unknown hackers spread across the globe. The international 'hacktivist' group has previously attacked the US Department of Justice, US Copyrights Office,Sony PlayStation Network, FBI and Egyptian government websites, among others.