FIA (Federal Investigations Agency) is reported to identify several suspects for their organized campaigns on social media, against the armed forces of the country and arrested for it.
This has, however, been condemned by the opposition parties which allege that it amounts to a misuse of the cybercrime law by the government. The opposition parties have even vowed to fight for the supporters of the ruling party who have been rounded up by the government.
According to a statement made by an official from FIA, identification of certain people indulged in running organized campaigns against the Pakistani Army on social media is done. According to FIA official, some of the suspects were taken into custody for interrogation.
After an order from the interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, rounding up of the suspects had been carried out. Minister ordered for the action after noticing that there was a lot of criticism for the withdrawal of a tweet by the ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations). ISPR is the public relations arm of the military, and the tweet had been a rejection of the findings of a govt body set up to investigate a story last year.
The FIA official stated -when asked- that the Govt. had made a request to the FIA and specifically its counter-terrorism department to help in the identification of the real culprits behind these campaigns. This Counter Terrorism Department had been confirmed to be working on the issue by the official. It is also stated that they had taken some suspects into custody but disclosure of their identities was not possible.
From FIA, forensic officials are working on the various social media accounts on WhatsApp, Facebook and websites, and blogs where the suspected materials are found.
In a clarification on the issue, an official said the govt didn’t target anyone who was posting messages or pictures without any vested interest in an issue. Thus, exemption of majority of online users is clarified.
