KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency on Sunday claimed to have arrested a young man for his alleged involvement in sexually abusing, harassing and blackmailing a girl student of class-VI.

“The FIA has unearthed an organised gang behind child pornography, which prompted the authorities to expand the scope of the inquiry to arrest more suspects,” said additional director of the FIA’s cybercrime cell Faizullah Korejo.

Officials said that they received a complaint from the mother of a 12-year-old girl that her daughter was being harassed by a man, or a group of men, who were harassing her online.

She named a resident of Defence Phase-V as one of the suspects.

FIA official Abdul Ghaffar said that during an inquiry, it transpired that the suspect was blackmailing the underage girl and wanted to meet her.

The man was called to the house of the girl’s sister in Gulshan-i-Jamal where an FIA team arrested him.

The suspect’s phone was examined by FIA’s technical experts, who found “a number of obscene pictures and videos” saved in the set, said the official.

A case was registered against the suspect under Sections 20 (malicious code), 21 (cyber stalking) and 24 (legal recognition of offences committed in relation to information system) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act of 2016.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2019