According to an FIA official “Dozens of suspects have been identified who are running an organised campaign on social media against the Pakistan Army, We have taken them into custody for interrogation.”
The opposition parties have claimed this misuse of the cybercrime law by the government.
Opposition parties have even pledged to fight for those supporters of the ruling party who have had been rounded up during the crackdown.
This action had been ordered by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan around a week ago, when the Interior Minister had taken notice of online criticism of the armed forces. The criticism started following the May 10 announcement by the Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’s media affairs wing, of the withdrawal of a tweet that “rejected” the government notification of the findings of a body, set up to investigate a story published in a newspaper last year.
FIA’s Counterterrorism Department (CTD) has said that the government had asked the FIA’s (CTD) to help trace the “culprits” in this regard. The official said that “The CTD is also helping us trace those running an anti-military campaign on social media.”
The official further added “We have taken some suspects into custody, but at this stage we cannot disclose their identities. No FIR has been registered against anyone detained in the crackdown so far.”
The official clarified that individuals would only be charged after a detailed forensic analysis of their social media accounts was conducted. It had become common for users to employ fake identities and post in other people’s name.
FIA’s special Forensic teams from the cybercrime wing have been working on the Facebook accounts of suspects, along with WhatsApp groups, blogs and websites where such a material is being uploaded.
The official at this point clarified that FIA was “not targeting those posting comments or images unintentionally or without any vested interest”.
However the crackdown targeted at social media activists with links to nearly all main political parties. The major opposition parties have vowed to resist all efforts to suppress dissent through the use of state institutions.
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