LAHORE: Police have detained a Pakistani citizen, accused of having a role in disseminating the disinformation that led to race motivated riots across the UK following the stabbing of three young girls in the city of Southport, law enforcement sources told Dawn.

However, investigators want the government to form a joint investigation team to investigate the allegations levelled by UK broadcaster ITV News, which had accused a Lah­ore-based freelancer of being the source of the misinformation that the 17-year-old British-born suspect was an immigrant who arrived in UK.

Officers privy to developments told Dawn that their own investigations led them to the conclusion that Farhan Asif — a freelance web developer associated with the Channel3Now platform that is blamed for posting the disinformation — was not the source of this spurious news, but rather copy-pasted it from a social media post.

“The allegations should not be taken lightly as they can have a far-reaching impact on Pakistani community in the UK, in particular, and Muslims in general,” a police officer told Dawn on Monday.

Investigators want JIT to probe ‘serious’ allegations; say Channel3Now freelancer was not ‘primary source’ of spurious claims

According to the officer, investigators believe that the disinformation was first published by kossyderrickent.com, a little-known tabloid on July 29th.

The tabloid posts reports about celebrities and trending topics in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uga­nda, US, Zimbabwe and India.

The disinformation was then shared by a UK-based woman, who has previously been involved in spreading disinformation about Covid-19 and climate change, on X (formerly Twitter), the officer said.

The X account of the woman in question also seems to be inactive, with the last post being made on Aug 7.

The officer said that police were looking into Asif, whose social media accounts had now been disabled, adding that he had no criminal record or suspicious transaction history.

He said Asif, upon realising the mistake, had issued an apology and deleted the post from all social media accounts, but the disinformation kept gaining traction as it kept being shared by other users and garnering views online.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2024

Opinion

In fight mode

In fight mode

The bouts between political parties and establishment take a toll on country far more than they do on political parties.

Editorial

Meltdown
08 Apr, 2025

Meltdown

A full-blown trade war is upon us as the era of the rules-based, multilateral trading order is nearly over.
Settling differences
Updated 08 Apr, 2025

Settling differences

Unless there is a broad agreement on the path forward, the country will remain trapped in a cycle of recurring instability.
Glacial ingenuity
08 Apr, 2025

Glacial ingenuity

NECESSITY is indeed the mother of invention, as witnessed in Gilgit-Baltistan. In these areas, where climate change...
Going dry
Updated 07 Apr, 2025

Going dry

Authorities should refrain from undertaking any water scheme that infringes on rights of any federating unit to avoid more controversies.
Afghan return
07 Apr, 2025

Afghan return

AS expected, the government of Pakistan is moving ahead with its plan to forcibly repatriate Afghan Citizenship Card...
Hurting women
07 Apr, 2025

Hurting women

MONTH after month, the figures of crimes against women in the country indicate that our society is close to...