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Shillong, July 23: The ruling Shehbaz Sharif government and the military establishment could further tighten its grip on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after police authorities raided the party’s central office in Islamabad and arrested its information secretary Raoof Hasan, on Monday.
Reliable sources told IANS that more arrests of PTI leaders and workers are in the pipeline on charges of spreading “digital terrorism, false propaganda and use of social media through fake accounts”.
People privy to information about the upcoming crackdown against PTI’s social media wing, said that there is a long list of identified leaders and workers of PTI, who have been using their mobile phones, party office and the internet to run social media trends against the Pakistani armed forces, the newly launched counter-terrorism operation ‘Azm-e-Istehkam’, and General Syed Asim Munir, the chief of the Pakistan army.
“There are credible pieces of information and intercepts that confirm that PTI leaders and their members, who sit in their party offices, create false, fake narratives and share them with the PTI social media team abroad to run deprecating trends and campaigns on social media platforms against the Pakistan armed forces,” said the source.
“The malicious propaganda campaigns are then run by the PTI social media team abroad. The recent raid and arrests of PTI leaders and confiscation of their electronic items, including computers, was done after getting evidence of the fake, propagated and concocted information being shared by them regularly to target Pakistan’s military establishment,” the source added.
The sources believe that Monday’s raid and arrest is just the start of a focused campaign against PTI leaders, workers and supporters of Imran Khan and PTI.
“This is exactly what digital terrorism is and PTI social media is at the forefront of it. Their social media teams operate from outside Pakistan and indulge in the spreading of fake narratives. Most of them have fake IDs and faceless social media accounts,” the source mentioned.
PTI founder Imran Khan, already in jail and facing several cases, continues to target General Munir, the military establishment and the ruling government.
In a recent statement given from Adiala Jail, Khan confessed that he had last year given a call for a protest outside the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi in the event of him getting arrested but did not tell his supporters to get violent or attack the military headquarters.
“I only called for a peaceful protest outside the GHQ Rawalpindi,” he said.
Imran Khan’s statement is expected to massively help the ruling government which is trying to initiate proceedings against the PTI, eventually ban the party and book Khan on charges of high treason.
The government has already slammed Khan and PTI for being involved in anti-state activities. (IANS)