Police on Monday arrested an individual in Peshawar over charges of giving death threats through social media to an activist actively demanding justice for slain Mashal Khan, it has been learnt.
The accused, Hamza Khan, had passed threats to Gulalai Ismail — founder of the non-governmental organisation Aware Girls — following her activism in Mashal Khan case, read a statement issued by Gulalai.
The accused also provoked others to kill Ismail through a video. She informed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had removed Khan's threatening video message from Facebook following a complaint by her.
Gulalai said that she had been receiving threatening messages since June 2017. She initially approached FIA but they did nothing to arrest the suspect after which she filed a case with the police on November 15, 2017.
Even after the case was registered, she continued to receive threatening comments from multiple profiles, many of them later identified as fake, on Facebook and Twitter.
The accused, identified in the first information report (FIR), was released on bail granted by the district and sessions court Peshawar.
However, he was arrested on Monday after it transpired that he had not only issued the life-threatening video message but also was commenting on her posts through multiple accounts.
Superintendent Police (SP) Cantonment Waseem Riaz confirmed that the 18-year-old Hamza Khan was arrested for threatening Ismail and that further investigations were underway.
The FIR of the incident, a copy of which is available with DawnNews, was registered under Section 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code [Punishment for Criminal Intimidation] and Section 25-D of the Telegraph Act [Penalty for Causing Annoyance].
