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FIA files cyberterrorism case against suspect for allegedly sharing fake news that incited UK riots

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested and booked a Lahore resident for allegedly sharing fake information that incited the recent riots across the UK, it emerged on Wednesday.

More than a week after the kingdom witnessed widespread riots in the aftermath of the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport, law enforcement agencies began probing claims that the disinformation originated from a website with a footprint in Pakistan.

Reports aired by UK media identified little-known platform Channel3Now as the source of the disinformation that claimed the British-born 17-year-old suspect was a Muslim immigrant who had arrived in the UK on a boat.

However, UK broadcaster ITV News asserted that a Pakistani individual was the originator of the false news story.

Lahore Deputy Inspector General (Operations) Faisal Kamran told Dawn they were analysing the claims made by ITV News and had initiated a probe.

According to a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the FIA, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the X user who allegedly shared the disinformation was identified as Farhan Asif, a resident of Lahore.

Additionally, Farhan Asif “admitted to providing misleading information to the BBC regarding his accomplices in an attempt to divert blame to others”, the FIR states.

Upon arriving at the suspect’s residence, the raid team took him into custody and searched the premises. The team seized two laptops and a mobile phone, with a technical analysis of the data suggesting that “the suspected Twitter account “Channel3Nownews” [was] found active through the alleged post was shared”, the FIR said.

When interrogating the suspect at the scene, he “confessed his guilt”, stating that he runs the ‘Channel3Nownews’ account “with the purpose of sharing the national and international news”. He maintained that he just reposted the tweet from another account titled ‘Bernie’.

The FIR was registered under Section 9 (Glorification of an offence) and 10a (cyberterrorism; coerce, intimidate, create a sense of fear, panic or insecurity in the (government or the public or a section of the public or community or sect or create a sense of fear or insecurity in society) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016.

Furthermore, an application for the suspect’s remand was submitted to the district court, with police requesting a 14-day remand “for the purpose of recovery and completion of investigation”.

However, the judicial magistrate only granted one day’s remand, directing the investigating officer to “complete the investigation positively” and to produce the suspect in court on August 22 (Thursday).



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