Pakistan cracks down on sectarian hatemongers on social media

Islamabad: Pakistan has ordered strict action against anyone propagating religious sectarianism through social media or mobile phones in the wake of a series of recent sectarian clashes in the country. The federal government has asked the Ministry of Information Technology and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to monitor social media for controversial statements that could lead to sectarian conflicts and to take measures against those who spread such content. The government also asked the FIA to investigate the issue and ordered them to take action against people involved in spreading such statements, Express Tribune reported. [caption id=“attachment_1236159” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Twitter logo. AFP[/caption] The move came after sectarian violence in the garrison city of Rawalpindi left 10 people dead and over 80 injured during the Ashura procession on November 15. A curfew imposed in the area was lifted earlier today. It was noticed that many pictures of alleged victims were doing the rounds on social media. Some of these pictures were also used during earlier incidents that have taken place abroad. Many banned groups have social media accounts, through which they spread hate speeches, specifically against Ahmadis and Shia Muslims. Earlier this year in October, the Sindh government had announced it would ban instant messaging and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) clients Skype, Viber and other communication networks as terrorists were reportedly using them to plot attacks. However, the ban could not go ahead as the federal government had refused to approve it. PTI