A parliamentary panel on information technology is likely to summon Apple Inc officials over the iPhone notifications row, sources said today. The controversy was triggered yesterday by opposition leaders alleging they received alerts from Apple indicating their devices could have been the targets of state-sponsored attacks.

The issue will be raised in the next meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on IT, sources said. The Opposition MPs are also likely to ask questions during the meeting, sources said.

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar had brushed off Opposition concerns about iPhone hacking yesterday.

“It is election season and people will pull all sorts of things from a hat,” he told NDTV in an exclusive interview. “Many people have got this notification in many countries,” Mr Chandrasekhar told NDTV, but seconded his boss Ashwini Vaishnaw’s comments about the need for an investigation.

Multiple opposition MPs, also including Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Shashi Tharoor, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, and the Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, posted screenshots of messages and emails they received from Apple on X, formerly Twitter.

The centre has said it expects Apple to clarify several matters, including whether its devices were secure and why these “threat notifications” were sent to people in over 150 countries.

Mr Chandrasekhar in a post on X said Apple has repeatedly claimed their products are designed for privacy, but the centre will investigate the “threat notifications” and also Apple’s claim of being secure and making privacy-compliant devices.

Responding to the claims of hacking alert, Apple yesterday said it “does not attribute the notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker”. The iPhone manufacturer also said “it is possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms”.

In a brief statement drawn from its technical support page, Apple said “state-sponsored attackers tend to be very well-funded and sophisticated… detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete.”

“It is possible some notifications may be false alarms or that some attacks are not detected,” the company said.

Australian authorities searched today for the remains of a 55-year-old surfer after a witness reportedly saw an attack by a large shark that “had his body in his mouth”.

There has been no trace of the victim since the marine predator struck Tuesday morning near the popular surfing spot of Granites Beach in South Australia, police said.

“The man’s body is yet to be found and the search resumed early this morning,” police said in a statement.

A 70-year-old surfer at the scene when the attack happened, Ian Brophy, said he was about to enter the water when someone yelled: “Shark!”

“As I turned around, I saw the shark go and just launch and bite,” he told Adelaide’s The Advertiser newspaper.

Brophy said he saw the predator go “over the top of the guy and bite and drag him down under the water and then nothing for a minute or two and blood everywhere and then up pops the board”.

“I saw him in the wave and the shark had his body in his mouth — it was pretty gruesome,” he said.

Within a few minutes, there was no sign of the surfer’s body.

“It took every bit of him, I think.”

Jeff Schmucker, a local resident, told national broadcaster ABC that he used his jet ski to help emergency services search for the surfer.

Schmucker said he went to the area of the attack and soon saw a great white shark “the length of a sedan car” — but he could not be sure if it was the killer.

Great white sharks are known to prowl South Australia’s coastline.

A teacher was mauled to death in May about 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the site of Tuesday’s attack.

The number of shark bites has increased over the past four decades due to factors such as human population growth and climate change, according to shark expert Charlie Huveneers from Flinders University.

As oceans get warmer, ecosystems are being forced to adapt and sharks may be following their prey and moving closer to shores, where they are more likely to come into contact with humans.

Huveneers told AFP that sharks sometimes attack humans because they mistake them for their usual prey, but also due to curiosity, hunger, self-defence and aggression.

Before Harrdy Sandhu entered the world of entertainment, he had a brief career as a cricketer and even represented India on the under-19 cricket team. Mr Sandhu was a fast bowler for Punjab and came close to being part of the Indian ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup 2006 squad. Unfortunately, he missed out on the opportunity due to some unforeseen circumstances. In a recent interview, he shared reasons why he wasn’t selected for the team, and one particular revelation from that interview has gained significant attention on the internet.

Appearing on a podcast ‘Figuring Out With Raj Shamani’, Mr Sandhu said the Under-19 team, while preparing for the 2006 World Cup in Sri Lanka, held a training camp in Pune. This camp invited 30 talented cricketers from all corners of the country. Each player was scheduled to participate in three matches during the camp, and the final team for the World Cup was to be selected by the selectors and the coach based on their performances in these matches. Mr Sandhu spoke about his notable performance during the camp, mentioning that in his first match, he managed to dismiss cricketers like Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Pinal Shah, and Yo Mahesh. This impressive performance led him to believe that he was on track to secure a spot in the Under-19 team for the upcoming World Cup.

Watch the video here:

However, despite his outstanding performance in the camp, Mr Sandhu was unable to secure a spot on the final team.

The selectors at that time were Pravin Amre, Dilip Vengsarkar, and one more person.

“We were batting on the third day, and it was my turn to bat. I asked Rahul Sharma, a former India and Punjab spinner, for a bat. Rahul was often called ‘Venky.’ Coincidentally, Venkatesh Prasad, who was our coach, was sitting in front of me. I called out ‘Venky’ to Rahul, but to my surprise, Venkatesh Prasad thought I was addressing him. Perhaps he took offense to this, and it might have influenced his decision to stick with the same squad that had played in the last two U-19 tournaments,”  Mr Sandhu said.

Harrdy Sandhu claimed this was one of the potential reasons for his non-selection in the team, and this particular revelation has been gaining significant attention on the internet. It has stirred a lot of reactions from users on social media, making it a viral topic of discussion.