Man arrested in Pakistan for 'spreading false information' about Southport attack suspect

20 August 2024, 19:12

A Pakistani web developer who helped spread false information that contributed to a wave of far-right riots across the UK has been arrested in the city of Lahore.

Farhan Asif is accused of spreading a false name in connection with the murder of three young girls in Southport last month via sensationalist aggregation website Channel3Now.

These false reports claimed “a 17-year-old asylum-seeker” named Ali al-Shakati was in custody after the attack, allowing the far-right to pin the horrific stabbings on Muslims and immigrants.

The report, which spread quickly via social media platform X, claimed the attacker was “known to MI6”, further inflaming tensions in the wake of the tragic incident.

Read more: King Charles meets families and survivors in Southport after dance class attack that killed three young girls

Last week, reporters from ITV confronted Asif, but he denied playing any role in the violence across the UK.

He said: “I don’t know how such a small article or a minor Twitter account could cause widespread confusion.

“Channel3Now mentioned that [the suspect was] a Muslim and an immigrant, but this has no connection to the chaos, which is being caused by people in his own country. If there was misinformation, it could have been addressed calmly. Why was there such an uproar?”

Channel3Now has been shut down since ITV’s report.

On Tuesday, police confirmed Asif had been detained and handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency.

“He was running a news website. Interrogation is underway,” an official told the Telegraph.

“He likely will be charged under the cyber terrorism section of Prevention of Electronic Crime(s) Act and will be produced before the relevant court after the interrogation is completed.”

According to a report by local publication Dawn, Mr Asif was not the source of the false name, rather he copied it from a post on social media.

He denied writing the article when confronted by ITV.

He said: “My understanding is that the article was deleted a day later, or it might have been done even earlier... there was a full article with an apology.

“It stated that it shouldn’t have happened, that it was a mistake by our team, and that they have been fired.”

“I think four people were fired,” he continued.

“The information search team, consisting of three to four people who worked on it together, were all fired.”

Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, died when a knifeman attacked a Taylor Swift dance class on July 29. Ten more people were seriously hurt in the attack.

The suspect, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, has been charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder.

The attack was followed by rioting in Southport and across the country.

The disorder included looting with hotels housing asylum seekers also attacked before counter-demonstrations appeared to quell the disturbances.