The federal government has decided to arrest all the people behind the negative propaganda against Lasbela helicopter crash on social media, a private news channel reported, quoting sources.
The report said that the people who led the campaign will also be arrested after investigating the individuals involved in the propaganda. It said the investigations have shown that Indian accounts were also involved in the social media campaign.
The report quoted the sources as saying that a campaign was launched against the Pakistan Army by the workers of a political party and Indian social media accounts actively participated in it. The investigations show that at least 17 Indian accounts were linked to the campaign. Last week, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing registered a case and launched an investigation into the malicious social media propaganda following the martyrdom of army officers in the Balochistan helicopter crash.
A joint investigation team headed by Additional Director General Cybercrimes Muhammad Jafar is carrying out the probe. The investigation team includes Director Operations Waqar Chauhan, Additional Director Ayaz, and Assistant Director Imran Haider, the report said. The development follows after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif characterized the campaign as “horrifying”.
“The social media campaign belittling and ridiculing the sacrifices of our martyrs was horrifying,” he wrote in a message on Twitter.
The prime minister attributed such vitriol to “self-righteous political narratives”.
“They poison the minds of the youth and weaponise hate speech. Which way are we headed?” he asked.
Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Babar Iftikhar has also condemned the negative social media propaganda.
“The way this happens on social media, we have to look into this and reject such elements involved in it,” he said in a statement.
“We can do this collectively. That’s why we issued a press release as it was important to highlight this matter. This has to be condemned at every level.”
