ISLAMABAD: Islamabad police have been reportedly checking the mobile phones of citizens to find Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters and arrest them, citizens fell victim to such raids confirmed.
The development came a week after Imran Khan-founded PTI staged a mass demonstration at Islamabad’s D-Chowk, which ended unusually and a massive crackdown was initiated against the protestors, what the government called miscreants, by Islamabad and Punjab police.
The government also formed a joint task force (JTF) to identify and trace perpetrators involved in a “massive malicious campaign”, which it said was aimed at discrediting the state.
A user on Reddit, a social networking site, said, “A police officer stopped him and checked the CNIC along with the phone gallery to search for anything related to Imran Khan or Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).”
One of the users on Instagram confirmed that his friend was taken into custody from sector F-10 after police found him joining the PTI group on “Facebook”.
Taking on Reddit, another victim stated, “On November 30 at around 2:00 am in F-10 Markaz, police and Rangers officials checked the mobile phones of citizens to search PTI-related videos in their WhatsApp and Facebook. Those having the videos [involving PTI] were detained.”
Several similar cases were reported on November 30, as another user confirmed that his college fellow was apprehended on the same day after police found videos of the PTI protest in his phone gallery.
Human rights lawyer and activist Imaan Zainab Mazari shared a message on X regarding the rising complaints of Islamabad police checking mobile phones of residents at checkposts.
“Police cannot demand ur phones at checkposts, let alone open the same & go through them. They require a warrant for that. If anyone stops you at a checkpoint and demands your phone, refuse to give it. What Islamabad Police is doing is completely illegal,” she wrote on a social media site.
On November 30, Regional PTI Islamabad President, Aamir Mughal “cautioned party workers and officials to be careful from the police raids in Islamabad” in a post on social media site X.
Islamabad police refused to comment on the developments after Daily Ausaf made repeated attempts to contact them.
