Pakistani police have arrested a local freelance journalist who is accused of disseminating fake news that led to widespread riots and violence against the Muslim community in the UK following the stabbing of three young girls in the city of Southport, an official said on Monday.
Farhan Asif, who works for a digital platform, Channel3Now, was taken into custody in the northeastern city of Lahore, local police chief Faisal Kamran told reporters.
The arrest came after UK broadcaster ITV News, in a report, accused Asif of being the source of the misinformation that the 17-year-old British-born suspect was an immigrant.
Asif, whose social media accounts had now been disabled, denied the charge, saying he only copied and pasted the news from a social media post.
The accused told ITV News that he had issued an apology and deleted the post from all social media accounts, but the disinformation was kept being shared by other users, garnering views online.
The police have handed him over to the Federal Investigation Agency for further probe, Kamran said.
Asif has no previous criminal record or suspicious transaction history, the police said.
Local English daily Dawn, while citing an unnamed police officer, reported that the disinformation was first published on July 29 by kossyderrickent.com, a little-known tabloid, which posts reports about celebrities and trending topics in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, the US, Zimbabwe and India.
According to the officer, the fake news was later shared by a UK-based woman, who has previously been involved in spreading disinformation about COVID-19 and climate change on X.
Her X account also seems to be inactive, with the last post being made on Aug. 7.
Nationwide far-right protests erupted across the UK after the devastating attack on a children's dance class in Southport that resulted in the deaths of three young girls and left another eight injured on July 29.
Over 1,000 people have been arrested and nearly 600 charged in connection with the riots.
