Interior Minister, Rehman Malik has directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to crack down on unscrupulous elements involved in cyber crime, particularly the misuse of short message service (SMS) by some banned outfits to advance their agenda.
“The interior minister has directed the FIA director general to be vigilant against the elements involved in cyber crime, including the misuse of SMS,” an official told The News. “The interior minister has directed the agency to specifically check the use of SMS service by some banned outfits to mobilize the public in their favour and provoke public against the government besides propagating their activities and agenda to create unrest in the country,” he said.
This correspondent asked the official as to what steps the government was taking to stop or counter the propaganda of some banned outfits, particularly the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, through the SMS.
The Hizb-ut-Tahrir, originally a Palestinian organisation headquartered in London, was banned under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 on November 20, 2003. He said the SMS campaign of the outlawed Hizb-ut-Tahrir was in the notice of the Ministry of Interior and other concerned agencies. He said that Hizb-ut-Tahrir had particularly become active after the ongoing Swat operation was launched. He said an SMS was circulated by the banned organization on May 9 from telephone number 0314/4978858, in which it tried to provoke the masses against the government with reference to the declaration of all-out war against the militants by the prime minister in his televised address.
This correspondent had also received the SMS from the same number. Another SMS, circulated on May 11 from telephone number 0313/4337329, stated: “Hizb ut-Tahrir staged protest demonstrations in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi against the Army operation in Swat. In the demonstrations, stoppage of the massacre of Muslims at the hands of Muslims and ouster of America from the region was demanded.”
Similarly, a press statement circulated by Naveed Butt, the spokesman for Hizb-ut-Tahrir Pakistan, via email on May 4 stated: “The government is spilling the blood of innocent people under the banner of writ of state and fighting militancy.
“The time has come that the sincere elements within the people of power must remove this government to stop this war and provide Nusrah [victory] to Hizb-ut-Tahrir so that the killing of Muslims may be stopped.”
When contacted, Interior Minister, Rehman Malik told this correspondent that the government was aware of the activities of some banned outfits in the wake of the Swat operation and was taking steps to initiate legal action against them.
“No outlawed organisation will be allowed to provoke masses against the government and advance their agenda of promoting extremism,” he said. “The short message service of the cellular companies falls in the category of cyber crime and the elements, misusing this service will be dealt with as per the relevant law.”
Source: Mazhar Tufail @ The News
Zardari govt is the worst thing that could happen to Pakistan. They are in cahoots with Washington and killing innocent people in the name of fighting War on Terror which is in reality a war on Islam. This was first conducted in Afghanistan and Iraq and now deliberatly extended to Pakistan.
As far as my research goes Hizb Tahrir is a peaceful political party which is working to unite the Muslim world under a single Caliphate using only political and intellectual means.
They have launched a nation wide campaign to create awareness on US war on Pakistan via drones and in collaboration with Zardari government.
Zardari government already trying to enforce laws which will bring death penalty to anyone who will account the corrupt democratic government using emails and now this SMS drama is just to build public opinion against use of technology to account the govt.
First SMS, then emails and then blogs. Zardari government like its predecessor democratic governments hate being accounted.
When you’re linking your name to the Hizb website, you haven’t based your comments on your “research”. A part member should post as a party member only, not try to pose as a concerned individual
reason for posting – so that people can make up their mind about this party themselves.
If we really want to solve the problem of american drone attacks as well as the militancy we’ll have to findout the root of the problem…. Now if we look back in time we’ll get to know that all these so called ‘militants” have always helped pakistan…. they helped pakistan by moving towards kashmir immediately after pakistan was founded, They helped pakistan in 65… They helped pakistan against russia… infact if carefully study the situation in 90s it was that pakistan using its agencies totally controlled all these people… all in the tribal belt as well as the ones in afghanistan… So well have to see that were was the turning point… As far as i think the turning point is when we turned our back towards them for fighting americas “war on islam”, This policy shift is the point when all these people who were are friends became our foes, the turning point is that wen america called them terrorist, we agreed…. So to undo all the trouble the thing we’ll have to do is leave the “war on islam” and move our forces towards the real enemies… Here i would like to make clear that i’m not supporting taliban or the so called militants… I’m just trying to make the point that if we look back we’ll findout the there were negligible number of suicide bombings in pakistan before 9/11… and now everyday there is a new bombing…. So where is the turning point 9/11… we’ll have to undo 9/11 policy change we did…
And i beleive the bigger issue is a foreign nation striking you with missiles rather than a bunch of militants with 1980’s machine guns… .
And remember this Allah(swt) has stated clearly in the quran that you cannot join hands wait a non-muslim against a muslim…
So which ‘A’ should we fear “America” or “Allah(swt)”????
@Zahid
Where was Hizbut Tahrir, when your Taliban freinds were slitting throats, suicide bombing, burning schools, violating the peace deal.
@ Asghar I generally agree with you and you made good points. If we think from a rational minds then siding with American War on Terror was the biggest mistake Musharraf made which resulted in betrayl to people of Pakistan and Islam.
@Zia.. I am not sure you correctly understand Taliban movement and the way they came about. I just want to go back to the time just prior to Nizam-e-Adl. It is clear to everyone that Islam can not be implemented by implementing just its penal code. Islam is a complete system and its implementation is via its ruling system called Caliphate which in turn implement economic, social, education and foreign policy systems of Islam.
Prior to Nizam-e-Adl there was little public support for operation against own people in Pakistan. So Zardari govt took a step back under advise from Washington(Holbrook/Mullen) signed the Nizam-e-Adl and then launched a vicious propaganda campaign which involved fake video, Taliban going to take us back to stone age(similar pre Afghan war propaganda to dislodge Taliban govt in Kabul) etc to create public opinion not so much against Talibans but to launch another war on its people in line with US war of terror. WHy? because US fear that these people are going to provide moral/material support to pushtoons in Afghanistan.
From what I can gauge from Hizb press releases the party never endorsed Taliban and never said they are implementing Islam they came out and clearly said that Islam can only be implemented in totality under the Khilafah state.
Remember that you do not fight your own people, you do not kill your own citizens if they have grievances you solve them on the table. When state fights its own people then it leads to breakups, fragmentation of the society and anarchy!
@Zahid
Okay! so Zardari gov’t signed the NAR under the advise from washington. Did Zardari called and told you that he is going to sign the NAR from the advise from washington?
Same old conspiracy theories. The gov’t had no choice but to take this step. Eventhough I wouldn’t declare a war just because of a video, but the video was not fake, everybody knows that.
@Asghar
If Jihadis and terrorist are our friends, then why the hell do we have an army for. It doesn’t matter whether you support the Taliban or not. But your ideology is the same. I mean Taliban are also asking for Sharia, aren’t they?
@Zahid
Thank you for understanding my point.
@Zia
If muslims are our friends then our army would surely be for our real enemies. As Allah(swt) ordered us in the quran “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know. Whatever ye shall spend in the cause of Allah, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not be treated unjustly.” Suran Anfal:60 .
Our army , tanks and missiles should be for ones who are attacking our beloved land with missiles…
And even if I agree with you that there are “a few” problem creators in the tribal belt even then putting your own house on fire is never the solution if someone is creating problem in your house… If the operation is not being carried out on americas’ order then why dont we just simply finish of the bunch of people who are really creating the problem rather than bombing a complete city of more than 2.5 million??? The real story is the same as it was in iraq many years back… When America decided to weaken iraq and then eventually take over.. This is the same way they started there… Internal wars, civil disorders, Amry against its’ own people… Now i dont need to tell you that where did they end up…
After all if we dont think about our today then our tomorrow will be worse and i know that you are a sincere pakistani…
My brother Zia don’t get all charged up on these issues, think deeply and please don’t get in the trap set up by the west.. We know that eventually for our survival muslims will have to unite… And also that the Prophet Muhammed (PHUB) predicted this that we’ll have extremely bad times but then we’ll unite once again…
One last thing Zia, I think that a demand for establishment of islam is not incorrect.. As we know that the way of life Allah(swt) gave us is the best… The incorrect thing is when you try to acheive the establishment of the sharia by the method you choose yourself… I beleive that the methodology to establish islam can only be provided by the Prophet Muhammed (PHUB) and as far as my knowledge is concerened, I think that the Prophet Muhammed (PHUB) used the method of an intellectual and political struggle…