FIA identifies account behind ‘malicious campaign’ against Justice Babar Sattar

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has identified several social media accounts used to run malicious campaign against Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Babar Satar and his family, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The investigation agency has submitted a 10-page comprehensive report to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) regarding the social media campaign against Justice Babar Satar and his family.

According to the report – a copy of which is available with ARY News, 39 Twitter accounts were used, out of which 29 were found to be fake. The agency had sent the details of 10 accounts with fake identities to NADRA for verification.

Meanwhile, the NADRA has provided details of the four accounts out of 10.

The report further stated that most of the accounts were used to retweets the original ones, noting that three hashtags were used mostly against Justice Babar Sattar – the first of which was started on April 22, 2024.

The report also revealed that a total of 155 accounts were used to trend second hashtags against Justice Babar Satar, out of which 124 could not be identified.

The FIA has requested social media platform, X, to provide information about the accounts used to run the campaign.

The agency has identified 18 accounts that were used to trend hashtags on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and has issued notices to six individuals in connection with the case. The individuals include Saeed Akhtar, Ismail Qasim, Khawaja Yaseen, Fahmida Yousufzai and Ahsan.

READ: IHC rejects baseless campaign against Justice Babar Sattar

Two individuals, Ismail Qasim and Faizan Rafi, have responded to the notices, while four others have not.

It is pertinent to mention here that a larger bench of Islamabad High Court (IHC) had launched contempt proceedings after personal details of Justice Sattar and his family, including their US residence permits, were posted online.

Justice Sattar pointed out that the privacy of his family members was breached, and their identity cards and permanent residency card were uploaded to social media.