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LAHORE: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has launched a crackdown on ‘anti-state’ social media activities, arresting 13 suspects in Punjab during the last couple of weeks.
“In a province-wide crackdown on 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 of the office.
As per the agency, the arrested suspects were involved in running a campaign against the state, particularly the army and the government functionaries, across various social media platforms. Some of the suspects 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 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 the public sentiments, but also had a negative impact on state order and governance,” the spokesperson said. Separate cases have been registered against all the suspects, and digital evidence has also been recovered from them, he added.
He further stated that the cases would be pursued on merit and handled in accordance with the law.
The NCCIA says that misuse of social media, particularly the dissemination of provocative or misleading content against state institutions, is a punishable offence.
A source told Dawn that most of the arrested individuals did not belong to any political party. “They appear frustrated (by the system) and vented out their anger,” he said.
In its annual report, global rights watchdog Amnesty International noted that changes to the laws related to online speech and terrorism in Pakistan significantly impacted freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, leading to detention of journalists, activists and opposition members.
Earlier this year, a sessions court sentenced lawyer and activist Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her spouse, Hadi Ali Chattha, to a total of 17 years imprisonment over “disseminating anti-state content on social media”.
Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2026
