A judicial magistrate (East) in Karachi granted the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) four-day custody of anchorperson Iqrar Ul Hassan on Tuesday in a case involving allegations of sharing anti-state, false and defamatory content on social media.
The judicial magistrate approved the agency’s request to remand Hassan, who was booked under Sections 9, 10, 24 and 26-A of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA).
The NCCIA said that Hassan was arrested over content allegedly shared on his official social media accounts.
Hassan’s family had earlier said that men in plainclothes took him from his Lahore residence in the early hours of Monday. One of the men was wearing an NCCIA identification tag, according to the family.
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said that police had not arrested Hassan and that the matter was under investigation.
In a video statement, Hassan’s wife Farah Iqrar said that the couple were at their home in Lahore’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) when a group of men broke open the main gate and entered the premises at around 3am.
She alleged that the men took Hassan away and manhandled her during the operation. They also confiscated two mobile phones belonging to her husband, a laptop and her own mobile phone, she claimed.
Farah added that a masked woman among the raiding party was wearing an NCCIA identification tag.
