- PTI to move court over “harassment" against its social media activists.
- Suspects include “mastermind” and at least six other members of his network.
- FIA sources say nine cases have been registered against the suspects.
Following recent political developments in Pakistan, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has detained 12 persons for their involvement in conducting a social media campaign against the Pakistan Army and other negative security organisations.
The campaign against security institutions began with the removal of Imran Khan as prime minister, which was widely criticised in tens of thousands of tweets by PTI activists, who stated that they would not accept "the imported administration" led by Shehbaz Sharif.
According to sources, the agency's anti-terrorism wing recently captured seven more individuals, including a "mastermind" and six other members of his network. According to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, five others were arrested earlier when the FIA launched a crackdown on the "smear campaign."
According to FIA sources, nine cases have been filed against the suspects.
They said that high-level social media monitoring is carried out on a regular basis in Islamabad, resulting in a top social media trend falling below the number four position.
The "mastermind" of the anti-Army social media campaign was the first to be apprehended by the FIA during a raid in Lahore's Sabzazar neighbourhood.
During interrogation, the detainee revealed the names of his six collaborators operating in other locations, who were eventually detained. The detainee was apparently behind over 2,100 Twitter accounts engaging in propaganda against the Pakistan Army.
It was discovered that the 2,100 accounts wrote a total of 200,000 tweets critical of the Pakistan Army. Meanwhile, the agency discovered another 2,000 accounts on Twitter that were spewing hate rhetoric.
At an internal briefing, the FIA's cybercrime wing director stated at least 50,000 web pages had been detected in connection with the propaganda effort against the Pakistan Army and judiciary, with the majority of the pages being managed from outside.
On Tuesday, the FIA director-general attended an important meeting at the FIA headquarters to discuss the problem.
PTI to move court against 'harassment'
Despite the fact that the FIA has not linked the vilification campaign to any political party, the PTI has chosen to take legal action against the "harassment" of its social media activists.
On Tuesday, Asad Umar tweeted, "[A] petition contesting the harassment of PTI social media activists has been finalised and will be submitted in high courts tomorrow (Wednesday) am."
The PTI's leaders have also distanced themselves from anti-government social media remarks. At the same time, the PTI's official Twitter account has urged party members to contact the party if they or anybody they know is "being threatened or targeted for political victimisation by anyone."
The army is paying attention to the propaganda effort.
According to the military's media wing, the 79th Formation Commanders' Conference on Tuesday took note of the recent propaganda operation by some quarters to defame the Pakistan Army and create separation between the military and society.
General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), presided over the meeting, which was attended by corps commanders, major staff officers, and all formation commanders of the Pakistan Army.
0 Comments