Editor
- Case for “technical help of cybercrime” filed below PECA Act.
- Accused gave false info to overseas channel, as per FIR.
- Two laptops, cell phone recovered as a part of investigation.
LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cybercrime wing on Wednesday has booked a Lahore man — linked to the current violent anti-immigrant riots throughout the United Kingdom — on “technical help of cybercrime” expenses.
The man, who has been recognized as Farhan Asif, has been accused of spreading misinformation in regards to the identification of the alleged perpetrator of the knife assault that killed three minor women on July 29, 2024, within the UK.
The stabbing then led to widespread far-right riots which noticed quite a few mosques, asylum centres and immigrant properties being attacked in a number of areas of Britain, leading to hundreds of arrests.
Asif was arrested on Tuesday night time in Lahore’s DHA space and was handed over to the FIA cybercrime wing for interrogation.
The case in opposition to Asif was filed below Section 9 and 10A of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, within the grievance of “technical assistant of cybercrime”.
The first info report (FIR) said that Asif, who works for a information platform primarily based in Pakistan, confessed to the crime which included sharing pictures of the stabbing and an article in regards to the incident on X.
“The article shared by Asif falsely claimed {that a} 17-year-old Muslim boy named Ali Al-Shakti, who migrated to the UK by boat in 2023, was liable for the stabbing,” the FIR said.
Additionally, the FIR revealed that the accused had admitted to giving false info to a overseas channel and, throughout the investigation, he additionally tried guilty others.
During the investigation, which was led by the investigating company’s Additional Director Cybercrime Chaudhry Sarfaraz, it was confirmed that the X account belonged to Asif.
Two laptops together with a cell phone have been additionally recovered from the accused as a part of the investigation, as per the FIR.
The FIA sources additional stated that Farhan had confessed to interrogators that he as soon as printed a narrative on his information web site with out understanding that the publish would go viral.
