PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Police in Pakistan have arrested a man accused of spreading false information online that anti-immigrant riots in Britain.
This month, violence broke out in Britain after the death of three young girls in a stabbing on July 29 in a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England. Rumors quickly spread online that the attacker was a refugee and a radical Islamist, prompting right-wing gangs to attack hotels housing asylum seekersas well as mosques and libraries.
Farhan Asif was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore and charged with cybercrime, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency said in a report seen by NBC News on Tuesday. It said Asif had posted an article on the website of his publication Channel3Now falsely reporting that British police had arrested a Muslim asylum seeker in connection with the Southport stabbings.
“The false claim, which has been widely circulated on social media, has incited the far-right group to violent riots,” the report said.
Asif was also accused of posting false information on his X account without verifying its authenticity and “with the intention of glorifying the incident”. Police said his actions created “a sense of fear” in Britain and damaged Pakistan’s reputation.
Authorities raided Asif’s home and seized two laptops and a mobile phone belonging to Asif, who “confessed his guilt” during an on-site interrogation, the report said.
Asif told police that the purpose of his X account was to share national and international news. The website appeared to be offline on Wednesday, while no posts had been made on the X account since August 12.
Asif had earlier told British broadcaster ITV that he was not responsible for the violence, saying: “I don’t understand how such a small article or such a small Twitter account could cause widespread confusion.”
More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the British riots, with almost 500 facing charges. In a subsequent show of solidarity, anti-racism protesters flooded the streetsespecially in neighborhoods with a large immigrant population.
The suspect in the attack, Axel Rudakubana, 18, was born in the Welsh capital Cardiff to Rwandan parents and had lived for years in a village near Southport itself, police said. Although reporting restrictions would normally have prevented authorities from naming Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, a judge has ordered them to be lifted in part to stop the spread of misinformation.
The motive behind the attack remains unknown.
Mushtaq Yusufzai reported from Peshawar and Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
