ISLAMABAD: A court in the federal capital has extended the physical custody of PTI Central Information Secretary Raoof Hasan by two more days and remanded a social media activist allegedly linked to the party.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) produced Mr Hasan before District and Sessions Judge Murid Abbas on Sunday after the expiry of his three-day remand granted last week.
The public prosecutor of the FIA informed the judge that the record of the case, including the transcripts of the videos, had been submitted to the court.
A forensic analysis of the videos must be done, the prosecutor said, demanding eight days of physical custody for Mr. Hasan.
Social media activist ‘linked to PTI’ sent to jail
At the last hearing on Thursday, the FIA submitted a report to the court in which it claimed that the suspect received “instructions through messages, audio notes, graphics and videos” from abroad on a daily basis.
The agency alleged that Mr Hasan oversees the party’s social media teams, which manage trends on social media platforms “to incite violence, create law and order and promote cyber terrorism”.
During Sunday’s proceedings, the investigating officer also informed the court about Mr. Hasan’s trip abroad on a visa allegedly sponsored by an Indian named Rahul.
The judge asked whether Mr. Hasan’s visa or plane ticket had arrived from India because there was a transcript of the conversation between Mr. Hasan and Rahul.
The FIA prosecutor confirmed that the ticket originated in India.
Mr Hasan said he runs a regional think tank and Rahul, who lives in the UK, invited him to be a guest speaker at an event in Bahrain.
“I am a senior fellow at King’s College London and I am responsible for working with the electronic media,” Mr. Hasan clarified his role to PTI.
“I have nothing to do with social networks. I don’t control social media.”
After arguments, the judge extended Mr. Hasan’s physical detention for two more days.
“PTI activist” taken into custody
The FIA also presented Syeda Arooba Kanwala, a social media activist who was allegedly associated with the PTI in the court.
The FIA prosecutor alleged that Ms Kanwal operated a party account on social media platform X, which she refused to hand over to investigators.
The public prosecutor requested that she be physically taken into custody for investigation.
Counsel for the accused, Ali Bukhari, said Ms Kanwal was an employee and managed PTI’s social media account.
He claimed that the entire case was based on data obtained from a mobile phone already in the custody of the FIA.
Advocate Bukhari requested the court to release all the accused. However, the judge sent Ms. Kanwal to jail on judicial remand.
