Days after a hashtag calling for the arrest of journalists briefly became the top Twitter trend in Pakistan, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, via his personal Twitter account, cautioned against making "sweeping targeted statements or trends" against any individual, profession or institution.

"Irresponsible biased use of social media and vested negative trends can lead to misunderstandings/spats," said the director general (DG) of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), army's media wing, on Sunday.

"Sweeping targeted statements or trends against any individual/profession/institution are unethical. One such example is sweeping trend against journalists," he said, ending it with the hashtag #StayResponsible. His tweet, however, did not specify if he was addressing anyone in particular.

The alarming hashtag #ArrestAntiPakjournalists was used or forwarded more than 28,000 times on Thursday. Many users accompanied it with a composite photograph of prominent journalists and TV anchors, some of whom regularly criticise the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the powerful military establishment.

An image of Hamid Mir, one of Pakistan's most high-profile TV anchors, was prominent among the photographs of journalists being shared.

Mir made international headlines in 2014 after surviving multiple gunshot wounds in an attack he blamed on Pakistan's top spy organisation.

Two days prior to the anti-journalists hashtag, he launched a Twitter tirade against increasing censorship after his interview with former president Asif Ali Zardari, now an opposition leader, was abruptly taken off the air shortly after it began.

“We are not living in a free country,” he wrote.

'Life-threatening campaign'

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists has taken notice of the malicious campaign launched on social media.

The union’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) adopted a resolution at its meeting on Saturday, which urged the government to take action against those responsible for the “life-threatening campaign”. It called upon the government, state institutions and judiciary to take immediate and urgent notice of the campaign, which has been launched on the basis of religious hatred.

Under the campaign, concocted and fabricated allegations have been posted online that have termed some journalists “foreign agents”, posing a direct threat to their lives and that of their families.

The FEC demanded that the government to direct the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cyber wing and other top agencies to investigate and arrest those who had launched the campaign in the name of countering hybrid war, just to gag and control the media and put working journalists and media workers under pressure.