Outfits banned in Pakistan thrive online

Islamabad: It’s dusk. The shadows of three men brandishing assault rifles welcome the reader to the Facebook page of Lashkar-e-Islam, one of 65 organisations banned in Pakistan, either because of terrorist links or as purveyors of sectarian hate.

Still more than 40 of these groups operate and flourish on social media sites, communicating on Facebook, Twitter, Telegram and WhatsApp,  according to a senior official with Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which is tasked with shutting down the sites. 

They use them to recruit, raise money and demand a rigid Islamic system. It is also where they incite the Sunni faithful against the country’s minority Shiites and extoll jihad, or holy war, in India-ruled Kashmir and in Afghanistan.

“It’s like a party of the banned groups online. They are all on social media,” the official said. 

Meanwhile, Pakistan is waging a crackdown on activists and journalists who use social media to criticise the government, the military or the intelligence agencies. 

Activists and journalists say the banned groups active on social media operate unencumbered because several are patronised by the military, its intelligence agencies, radical religious groups and politicians.

One Facebook page features one of India’s most wanted, Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, another banned organisation and a US declared terrorist group. Yet his group, which has been resurrected under several names, is billed as a charity.