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Sonia Gandhi Image Credit: Gulf News Archive

Hackers broke into the official website of India's ruling Congress party Friday and defaced the profile page of party president Sonia Gandhi with a pornographic message.

The attack coincided with Gandhi's 65th birthday and came just days after the Indian government pledged a crackdown on "unacceptable" Internet content, that included faked naked pictures of the Congress leader.

"I have been informed that the website has been hacked," Congress spokesman Tom Vadakhan said, adding that the site had been swiftly closed down once the intrusion was detected.

The pornographic text included a reference to a Pakistan-based email address, but did not otherwise identify the hackers.