Following recent political developments in the country, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested 12 persons for alleged involvement in conducting a social media campaign against the Pakistan Army and its security agencies.
The campaign against security institutions began with the removal of Imran Khan as prime minister, with PTI activists primarily condemning the action in tens of thousands of tweets, claiming they would not accept “the imported administration” of Shehbaz Sharif.
According to sources, the agency’s anti-terrorism wing recently captured seven more individuals, including a “mastermind” and six other members of his network.
Five others were arrested earlier after the FIA launched a crackdown on the “smear campaign,” in accordance with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s directions.
According to FIA sources, nine cases have been filed against the suspects.
They said that high-level social media monitoring is carried out on a regular basis in Islamabad, resulting in a top social media trend listed below number four.
The “mastermind” behind the anti-Army social media campaign was apprehended first during an FIA operation in Lahore’s Sabzazar district.
During interrogation, the inmate — who was allegedly behind over 2,100 Twitter accounts engaging in anti-Pakistan Army propaganda — gave the names of his six collaborators working in other locations, who were eventually apprehended.
It was discovered that the alleged 2,100 accounts tweeted a total of 200,000 tweets against the Pakistan Army.
Meanwhile, the agency identified another 2,000 Twitter accounts involved in hate speech.
At an internal briefing, the FIA’s cybercrime wing director stated that at least 50,000 web pages had been detected in connection with the propaganda effort against the Pakistan Army and the judiciary, with the majority of the pages being managed from outside.
On Tuesday, the FIA director-general convened a critical meeting at the FIA headquarters to discuss the situation.
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