ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) the other day, has released a PTI social media activist, Salar Sultanzai, who was detained under the controversial cybercrime law.The party members had managed to obtain bail orders from the court for Salar’s release.
Salar Sultanzai, a former information secretary of the party’s Balochistan chapter, also the founder of the PTI’s cyber force appeared before the FIA Counter Terrorism Wing. As per a senior party leader, Salar was interrogated regarding his social media reports regarding the Dawn Leaks issue.
Talking to a local media outlet, Senior PTI leader Qasim Khan Suri stated that Salar has been released by the FIA after his statement was recorded and investigations are underway.
Following Salar’s detention, Imran Khan and other senior PTI leaders condemned the arrest stating that government was using the cybercrime law to “politically victimise PTI social media activists”, which is “unacceptable in a democracy”. In response, the interior ministry released statistics about the number of cyber crime cases it registered and the number of people detained under the cyber crime law.
As per the information made available to the parliament by the interior ministry, since 2013, when the PML-N government came to power, the cyber crime wing of the FIA had registered as many as 894 cases against individuals, and made 689 arrests.
Out of the 894 cases registered under cyber crime, 179 cases have been decided while the rest are pending with the FIA, it was informed to the parliament.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also recently asked the cyber crime wing of the FIA to take action against those involved in an anti-army campaign on social media platforms in the aftermath of the Dawn Leaks settlement.