The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tuesday arrested five suspects, including a political activist, for allegedly running an online smear campaign against the security institutions and judiciary following the ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan in a vote of no-confidence motion passed by the National Assembly. The FIA launched the crackdown on instructions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The arrests were made as a result of several raids in Lahore, Multan, Karachi, Islamabad and Rawalpindi by the cybercrime wing of the federal agency. The suspects have been handed over to the counter-terrorism wing of the FIA. Political activist Maqsood Arif was among those arrested.
The FIA swung into action as a result of an online campaign against the state institutions, including the chief justice of Pakistan, following the dismissal of the PTI government, says a news report.
According to a senior official of the FIA, the cybercrime wing could not initiate action against the detained suspects after the annulment of Section 20 of the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act.
On the other hand, an officer of FIA’s counter-terror wing said more arrests were expected in the coming days.
The FIA director general was given a briefing by the cybercrime wing wherein thousands of pages involved in anti-state activities were identified.
The DG was informed that at least 2,000 accounts were involved in a smear campaign against the army and its chief.
In Gujranwala, the FIA has prepared a list of 16 social media users and teams will be formed to arrest them, sources close to the matter said, adding that cases will be registered against them under the anti-terrorism act.