Islamabad Police conduct raids in Karachi to arrest news channel staff

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 28 (ANI): The Islamabad Police conducted raids in different localities of Karachi, including the South Zone to arrest staff members of a news channel for carrying out propaganda against the state.
However, the raids conducted to arrest six staff members of a news channel in Karachi proved futile as all of them had fled, Dawn quoted.
The police spokesman confirmed that the raid was conducted in Karachi to arrest six staff members of the news channel, but refused to give further details.
The majority of the houses raided by the police were found abandoned for long, while a few of them were in a deserted place, they said, adding that later they left Karachi for Islamabad.
The raids were conducted in response to directives from the authorities concerned, the sources said, adding that the authorities believed that Shahbaz Gill was not alone in the ‘conspiracy’.
Gill was arrested on charges of conspiring with a private Pakistani TV news channel in carrying out propaganda against the state. Police said he was arrested for making statements against the state institutions and inciting the people to rebel.
The police arrested him on August 9 after he made controversial remarks against the Pakistan army on television that were deemed as “highly hateful and seditious” by the country’s media authority.
He was charged under Sections 34 (common intention), 109 (abetment), 120 (concealing design to commit offense punishable with imprisonment), 121 (waging war against state), 124-A (sedition), 131 (abetting mutiny, or attempt to seduce a soldier, sailor or airman from his duty), 153 (provoking to cause riot), 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Later, Section 201 of the PPC — causing disappearance of evidence of an offense or giving false information to screen offender — was added to the FIR.
Different PTI leaders and some staff members of the news channel have been identified as being involved in hatching the ‘conspiracy’, they added, reported Dawn.
Meanwhile, a decision has also been taken to club the case registered against staff members of the news channel at Karachi’s Memon Goth police station with the one registered at Kohsar police station in Islamabad.
According to the officers, a request is being made to the Sindh government to refer the case registered at Memon Goth police station to Kohsar police station in Islamabad, reported Dawn.
In another move, the capital police approached the FIA Cyber Crime wing to register a case against Shahbaz Gill over his appearance in the controversial news bulletin of the news channel, the officers said.
Besides, the police also requested the FIA to register cases against the social media handler who shared the news bulletin from their accounts as well as those who were sharing their view in favour of Gill as all were creating a bad image of the police, reported Dawn.
However, the FIA Cyber Crime refused to register the case, saying as per the apex court decision announced in 2018, one FIR should be registered in one crime. (ANI)