The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday arrested eleven suspects, including a political activist, for allegedly running an online smear campaign against army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.Earlier,it took five suspects and another six were held at night
These arrests were made as a result of several raids in Lahore, Multan, Karachi, Islamabad and Rawalpindi by the cybercrime wing of the federal agency. The suspects have been handed over to the counter-terrorism wing of the FIA. Political activist Maqsood Arif was among those arrested.
The FIA swung into action as a result of an online campaign against state institutions, including the chief justice of Pakistan, following the dismissal of the PTI government.
According to a senior official of the FIA, the cybercrime wing could not initiate action against the detained suspects after the annulment of Section 20 of the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act.
On the other hand, an officer of FIA’s counter-terror wing said more arrests were expected in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the director-general of the FIA was given a briefing by the cybercrime wing wherein thousands of pages involved in anti-state activities were identified. The DG was informed that at least 2,000 accounts were involved in a smear campaign against the army and its chief.
A meeting of Pakistan Army officials on Tuesday took note of the recent criticism directed at the institution on social media and expressed complete confidence in the leadership's "well-considered stance to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law".
According to a statement issued from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the 79th Formation Commanders’ Conference was held at the General Headquarters that was attended by the army's corps commanders, principal staff officers and all formation commanders and presided over by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
"The forum took note of the recent propaganda campaign by some quarters to malign [the] Pakistan Army and create division between the institution and society.
"National security of Pakistan is sacrosanct. Pakistan Army has always stood by the state institutions to guard it and always will, without any compromise," the ISPR statement said.It added that the forum expressed "complete confidence in the leadership’s well-considered stance to uphold the Constitution and rule of law at all costs".
The military has come under criticism this week, especially in the wake of former prime minister Imran Khan's ouster through a successful vote of no-confidence. Trends against the armed forces and its leadership have seen intense activity on social media platforms such as Twitter.
Slogans critical of the army were also chanted during country-wide protests staged on Sunday in support of Khan.Apart from taking notice of the social media developments, the army huddle was briefed on professional matters, national security challenges and measures being undertaken to counter traditional and non-traditional threats.
"COAS expressed satisfaction over operational preparedness of formations and response mechanism to deal with emerging challenges. Forum paid rich tribute to the supreme sacrifices of officers and men to ensure [the] security of borders and safety of masses," the ISPR said.
It said the army was aware of its responsibilities and would continue to defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan against all internal and external threats under all circumstances.
