The LONG arm of the law: Pakistani web developer arrested in Lahore for 'spreading fake news that the Southport knifeman had arrived in the UK via boat and was on an MI6 watchlist' By Miriam Kuepper Published: 20:40, 20 August 2024 | Updated: 20:42, 20 August 2024 e-mail A Pakistani web developer has been arrested in Lahore for allegedly spreading fake news that the Southport knifeman had arrived in the UK via boat and that he was on an MI6 watchlist. Farhan Asif allegedly worked for news aggregation website Channel3Now, which published false articles about the identity of the Southport stabber, ITV News reports. Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were killed in the July 29 attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, which sparked the riots after online misinformation wrongly said it had been committed by a Muslim migrant.
Channel3Now reported that the suspect was a '17-year-old asylum-seeker' called Ali al-Shakati, who allegedly arrived in the UK by boat in 2023 and allegedly was on an MI6 watch list. More than 50 police officers were injured as up to 1,000 people gathered outside a Southport mosque after the fake news over the identity of the suspect in the killings was shared online. Farhan Asif (pictured above as he is being confronted by journalists) allegedly worked for news aggregation website Channel3Now, which published false articles about the identity of the Southport stabber, ITV News reports Bebe King, six, was killed in the horror attack in Southport last month Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven (pictured) was another victim of the knife attack on the Taylor Swift-themed dance class Alice Aguiar, nine, died in the early hours of the morning of July 30 after being rushed to hospital following the attack Asif was uncovered as a significant figure in the Channel3News website in an ITV News investigation, which found that he ran the website - which has since been shut down - from his luxurious housing estate in Lahore.
'I don't know how such a small article or a minor Twitter account could cause widespread confusion,' he told ITV News journalists after being confronted about the fake news the website spread. Read More BREAKING NEWS King Charles tells of his profound 'shock' at killing of three young girls in Southport stabbings '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?' Pakistani authorities have now confirmed that Asif had been arrested, with a senior official in the local police force telling the Telegraph that he had been detained over allegedly spreading fake news that resulted in violent riots. He has since been handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency. Asif denied writing the article about the Southport knifeman and told ITV News that he understands that the article was deleted a day after it was posted and that an apology was issued.
He claims that four people from the information search team were fired over the fake news article. A police van set alight on July 31 as trouble flares during a protest in Southport, after three children died and eight were injured in a 'ferocious' knife attack during a Taylor Swift event at a dance school Pakistani newspaper Dawn said their own investigation into the fake news showed that Asif was not the source of the information and had simply copy and pasted it from a social media post. Ten others seriously injured during the attack on the dance class at the Hart Space Community Centre in Southport a the end of July.
A 17-year-old male, who the police said was born in Britain, was charged with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and one of possession of a bladed article. The UK's worst unrest in more than a decade led to some 1,100 arrests. The government pledged that rioters who hurled bricks at police, looted shops and attacked mosques and hotels used to house asylum-seekers would feel 'the full force of the law.
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