LAHORE, Nov 18: Police on Tuesday arrested three owners of an Internet cafe, traced the domain and e-mail address allegedly used for sending a threat to the New Zealand Cricket Board (NZCB).

“We have found out in the so far investigation that it is not a work of any terrorist organization. It seems to be a job of some youngster(s) who did it just for creating a sensation,” city police chief Khwaja Khalid Farooq told Dawn.

“We in league with intelligence agencies are working on the case, and we have also sought the help of cyber experts.”

It is learnt that special teams comprising police officials, its cyber crime wing, and private computer experts and the intelligence agencies were assigned the task to track down the hacker(s).

“No need to worry about the threat as it has no potential in reality to alarm the visiting team,” the police chief said and added that his force was taking all measures against the threat.

“The South African cricket team was also concerned over its security, but nothing wrong happened during the visit due to our elaborate security arrangements. “Let me assure that there would be no problem at all as far as the security and police job were concerned,” Mr Farooq said.

The accused hacker(s) had sent an e-mail to the NZCB threatening its management and team members with dire consequences on account of their forthcoming visit to Pakistan in Ramazan.

A senior police officer, who is also part of the investigation teams, said the NZCB had referred the mail to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that brought it to the notice of the Pakistan government, and thus the matter was assigned to Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat and then to law enforcers, especially those dealing with cyber crimes.

Initial work on the case, the officer said, led the law enforcers to a cyber domain falling in the jurisdiction of Lahore police.

The cyber crime investigators teamed up with the Lahore police and narrowed down the probe. This led them to an Internet cafe in the city, he added.

The officer said the cafe was raided by the investigation teams and all of its record was retrieved and taken into custody, besides the owners.

The officer did not disclose the name of the owners nor the cafe and the specific place where it is located, arguing that it was likely to end any hope to arrest the hacker(s). “The cafe is the only lead from where the police could find any thing if the hacker(s) visit it again.”

However, another source said names of two of the owners start with A and that of the cafe with C.

The officer said the record retrieved by the police showed that the e-mail address through which the threat was sent belonged to a youngster, 22. “It might be all fake.”

Plain-clothes officials had been deployed at the cafe, including one acting as a new partner of its owners. All of the activities being carried out on all proxies and main server of the cafe were being watched by the police cyber experts, he said.