LAHORE: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on Tuesday launched a crackdown on ‘anti-state’ social media activities, arresting 13 individuals in Punjab.

“In a province-wide crackdown against anti-state social media activities, the NCCIA has arrested 13 individuals from different cities of Punjab during the last couple of weeks,” a spokesperson for NCCIA told Dawn.

He said the crackdown has been launched on the instructions of NCCIA Punjab Director Muhammad Ali Waseem, who recently took charge.

Those arrested were involved in running a campaign against the state, particularly the army and government functionaries, across various social media platforms, he added. Two of them were also allegedly involved in posting content targeting Gulf countries.

The arrested suspects have been booked under different sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016.

According to the spokesperson, social media activists Usman, Qamar, Abbas, and Tahir Mushtaq have been arrested from Lahore; Hamid Raza, Imran Afzal, and Waqar Ahmed from Gujranwala; Ismail and Siddiq from Faisalabad.

While suspects Arshad, Umar, Junaid and Azhar were apprehended from Multan.

“The arrested individuals were involved in sharing various types of content on social media platforms against the state institutions and the government. This content not only hurt public sentiments but also had a negative impact on state order and governance,” the spokesperson said, adding that separate cases have been registered against all the suspects, and digital evidence has also been recovered from them.

He further stated that the cases would be pursued on merit and handled in accordance with the law.

The NCCIA said that misuse of social media, particularly the dissemination of provocative or misleading content against state institutions, was a punishable offence.

In its annual report, global rights watchdog Amnesty Inter­national noted that changes to online speech and anti-terrorism laws in Pakistan significantly impacted freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, leading to the detention of journalists, activists and opposition members.

On April 30, the NCCIA arrested a man in Lahore for allegedly posting anti-army and anti-state content on social media platforms.

Earlier this year, a sessions court sentenced lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her spouse, Hadi Ali Chattha, to a total of 17 years in prison over “disseminating anti-state content on social media”.