• Police arrest Mohammad Yaseen after raid in Barsharyal village. 
• FIA’s geofencing of video led to the arrest of individual. 
• Conspiracy hatched to ensure death of all seen in video: DPO. 

MANSEHRA: Police on Friday arrested a man who allegedly uploaded a doctored video on a fake Facebook account created in the name of a boy who could be seen in that footage.

The incident triggered a shockwave among the families in the mountainous tribal region of Mansehra District and led to the killing of one of the girls whose fake video had gone viral while the other one had been rescued. 

Officials said a police party raided a house in the Barsharyal village in Kolai-Palas district and arrested Mohammad Yaseen. The police produced him before the magistrate who handed him over to the police custody for six days.

“Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cybercrime wing carried out geofencing of the video, which paved the way for the arrest of one of the central accused Mohammad Yaseen and more arrests are also expected shortly,” District Police Officer, Kolai-Palas, Mukhtar Khan Tanoli told reporters.

He said the police expected important revelations by the accused Yaseen as a conspiracy was hatched to kill those featured in the video but police rescued one of two girls. The official said photos were cropped to make a video featuring them in separate pairs and uploaded on social media.

He said that a mobile SIM from which a Facebook account with the name of Mohammad Didar, one of two boys could be seen in the video, was created by Yaseen and then uploaded on social media.

The DPO said a conspiracy was hatched to ensure the death of all those seen in the video by their families in the light of local culture but police rescued all three except the girl who was killed allegedly by her father, brother and uncle. The accused were later arrested.

A committee was constituted by caretaker Chief Minister Syed Arshad Hussain Shah to probe the case and ensure that such a gruesome incident did not take place in future.

The committee, which includes the commissioner and DIG of Hazara, DPO Kolai-Palas and FIA’s Cybercrime Wing’s Deputy Director Mohammad Asif, is working to finalise the report for onward submission to the chief minister.

“We have fixed Mohammad Yaseen as one of the main culprits who used his mobile SIM to create a Facebook account to put the cropped video on it,” Asif said.

The first information report of the incident was lodged by the SHO Palas Police Station Noor Mohammad Khan under sections 302/311 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code against the male family members of the slain girl who were arrested subsequently.