KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday remanded a man in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a child pornography case.

The US consulate general, through its special agent Christopher Peterson, had filed a complaint against the suspect, accusing him of extorting minors in the United States.

Later, the FIA Cyber Crime Reporting Circle had booked the suspect for offences under Sections 16 (tampering with communication equipment), 22 (spamming) and 26 (legal recognition of offences committed in relation to information systems) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

On Wednesday, the investigating officer of the case, Ameer Ali Khoso, brought the suspect before Judicial Magistrate (East) Yusra Ashfaq and sought his 14-day physical custody for interrogation.

The IO informed the court that the suspect was held over his alleged involvement in child pornography as he misused the personal objectionable data of minor US citizens.

After hearing the IO and examining the remand papers, the court handed over the suspect into FIA custody for five days.

According to the FIR, after getting a search warrant, the FIA team raided the suspect’s house in Gulzar-i-Hijri and seized his personal electronic devices, including his mobile phone, laptop. An initial technical analysis of the seized devices revealed that it possessed child pornographic material/videos and threatening messages.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2025