A Pakistani journalist accused of spreading fake news that helped spark anti-immigration and anti-Muslim riots in the UK has been arrested in Lahore.
Earlier today police confirmed they had detained Farhan Asif, who is in his 30s, and handed him over to the Federal Investigation Agency on suspicion of spreading fake news that incited violence.
Asif is alleged to have worked for news website Channel3Now, which falsely reported that the suspect in the Southport stabbings was “a 17-year-old asylum-seeker” named Ali al-Shakati.
The website claimed he had arrived in the UK by boat last year and was on “an MI6 watch list” – an accusation which went viral on social media.
An ITV News investigation last week accused Mr Asif of being a significant figure in the website.
Confronted by journalists, Mr Asif denied being responsible for the violence, saying: “I don’t know how such a small article or a minor Twitter account could cause widespread confusion.
“Channel3Now mentioned that [the suspect was] a Muslim and an immigrant, but this has no connection to the chaos, which is being caused by people in his own country. If there was misinformation, it could have been addressed calmly. Why was there such an uproar?”
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The ITV investigation found that though the Channel3Now internet domain records were anonymous, Mr Asif was listed on records for several linked websites with similar names, layouts and content, including Fox3Now and Fox7Now.
He denied writing the inflammatory article, telling ITV News: “My understanding is that the article was deleted a day later, or it might have been done even earlier… there was a full article with an apology.
“It stated that it shouldn’t have happened, that it was a mistake by our team, and that they have been fired.”
“I think four people were fired,” he added. “The information search team, consisting of three to four people who worked on it together, were all fired.”
