Police in Pakistan police have arrested a man and charged him with cyber terrorism over his alleged role in spreading misinformation widely believed to have triggered widespread rioting in the UK earlier this month
The suspect was identified as Farhan Asif, 32, the freelance web developer behind Channel3 Now, said Imran Kishwar, deputy inspector general of investigations in Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province.
The man is accused of spreading misinformation from YouTube and Facebook about the British teenage suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three girls and injured 10 other people on July 29 at a dance class in Southport.
The false information claimed that the suspect was a recently arrived asylum-seeker and had a name which suggested the teen was Muslim.
After the misinformation led to a violent mob attacking a mosque near the site of the stabbing the next day, police took the unusual step of clarifying that the suspect was born in the UK.
The suspect was subsequently named as 17-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, whose parents are from Rwanda and who are believed to have Christian beliefs.
Channel 3 Now, an account on the X social media platform that purports to be a news channel, was one of the first outlets to report the false name, Ali Al-Shakati. A Facebook account for the channel said it is managed by people in Pakistan and the US.
A BBC investigation published Mr Asif’s name earlier this month, after speaking to people in Texas and Canada connected to the website.
The site’s editor-in-chief posted an apology on July 31 for “the misleading information published in a recent article on our website, Channel3 Now. We deeply regret any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.”
But the false reports were widely disseminated and are blamed for fuelling more than a week of rioting that broke out across the United Kingdom and has led to more than 1,000 arrests.
Authorities have blamed far-right agitators for stoking the violent unrest by continuing to spread misinformation and promoting the violent demonstrations online.
At a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore, police said Asif was arrested at his house in the city for questioning.
He said Asif had claimed that he was not the source of the misinformation but that he reposted it from social media.
Police have handed over the case to the Federal Investigation Agency, which handles cases relating to the cyberterrorism. It was unclear if Britain had requested his extradition.
