FIA arrests 30 TLP social media activists for promoting hate speech

LAHORE: Despite a deal between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and the outlawed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing has continued crackdown against party’s social media activists for promoting hate speech.

According to the documents available with Bol News, the Cyber Crime Wing arrested at least 30 TLP social media activists during an ongoing crackdown. 

Statistics showed that at least 80 raids had been conducted by the agency in various cities under the supervision of Director Operations of Cyber Crime Wing Babar Bakht Qureshi. During the raids, at least 30 suspects were arrested, and 19 FIRs were also registered.

Those arrested include Muhammad Shazaib Nazir, Muhammad Hassan, Kaleem Ullah, Nadeem Akhtar, Muhammad Aqib, Awais Arif, Ahmed Yousaf, Syed Aqub Shah, Muhammad Rafique, Muhammad Juman and others.

Crackdown against proscribed TLP

The Cyber Crime Wing launched the countrywide crackdown against the proscribed TLP on October 27.

The technical and forensic team of the Cyber Crime Wing analyzed and investigated various trends. Social engineering was also used to infiltrate the TLP community and extract information that led to the arrests.

Numerous online platforms were identified by FIA that the TLP was actively using to promote their agenda with continuous communication and updates.

Separately, a senior cyber crime official told Bol News that the phone numbers gathered by the forensic team were further investigated to track down the ownerships and locations of the targets.

The location-specific information was further transmitted to the field investigation officers and raiding teams were formed to arrest the suspects.

Foreign connection identified 

The FIA also claimed to have unearthed and identified a foreign connection of TLP which was creating a law and order situation in the country.

The investigation and analysis of various social media platforms, especially WhatsApp groups, revealed that phone numbers, registered in foreign countries, were also involved in inciting violence and glorifying the proscribed organisation.

“During web and social media crawling, it was also observed that a number of foreign people were also found to be active in anti-government and pro-TLP sloganeering,” said the FIA.

Investigations revealed that numbers registered in Indonesia, the US, India, Italy, the UK and South Africa were being used in WhatsApp groups.

Officials also shared that the FIA has forwarded a list containing 90 Facebook links, 150 YouTube links, 102 WhatsApp groups, 3,000 Twitter posts or trends and 28 foreign numbers to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for their blocking.

“In order to ensure the effectiveness of the crackdown against the TLP activities, necessary action needs to be taken against the foreign numbers by PTA,” observed FIA in a report submitted to the federal.

The FIA official told Bol News that even though an agreement was signed between the federal government and TLP the crackdown would continue and more arrests can be expected.

Members of the negotiating team from the government side on Sunday claimed that they had reached an ‘agreement’ with the proscribed TLP, however, refused to give any details.