LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has sought record from the relevant department of the US about the two suspects allegedly involved in uploading objectionable videos and pictures of a teenage American girl on social media that is believed to be the ‘sole reason’ for her suicide.

The FIA on Thursday arrested Arsalan Saeed alias Mikram Saeed (prime suspect) and Kamal Anwar, both residents of Dijkot, Faisalabad, under sections 20, 21, 22 and 24 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (Peca) in connection with the girl’s suicide.

“Both suspects have been arrested on the information provided by the US Embassy for their alleged involvement in sharing objectionable videos and pictures of 17-year-old New York girl Shylynn Dixon among her friends on social media (Facebook) that made her to commit suicide,” FIA cyber crime chief Babur Bakht Qureshi told Dawn on Friday.

When asked whether the FIA would hand the suspects over to the US authorities, Mr Qureshi said: “They [suspects] will not be extradited (to the US) as we will try them here. Our law is very strict on such crime and they will surely be convicted for their alleged crime.”

“We have sought relevant evidence/record of involvement of the suspects [in the matter] from the department concerned of the US. The required evidence will reach here through its (US) court,” Mr Qureshi added.

The US Embassy had told the FIA that both suspects were involved in blackmailing and “sextortion” through Facebook of Ms Dixon (a resident of Lisbon town of New York), that led her to commit suicide.

“The suspects shared objectionable pictures and videos of the victim among her friends and school fellows on the social media networking site,” the FIA said. The agency has also seized digital devices used by the suspects during a raid on their residence. The suspects confessed to have committed illegal act of blackmailing and sextortion,” the agency said.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), during investigation into the suicide of Ms Dixon, found that Arsalan Saeed (residing in Punjab, Pakistan) sexually exploited her (on social media) leading to her suicide. “Saeed received sexually explicit media of/from Ms Dixon over Facebook and later made her to provide him more sexually explicit material. Ms Dixon committed suicide owing to Saeed’s sextortion threats,” the FBI report sent to the FIA mentioned.

On March 3, 2021, members of the New York State Police visited the town of Lisbon to investigate the suicide of Ms Dixon by the use of a firearm.

“Information gathered through investigation had revealed that the victim had sent a nude image to an unknown person (Saeed) through a social media platform (Facebook), and she was being harassed,” the FBI report said.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2022