Pakistani man arrested in connection with UK riots

A man in Lahore, Pakistan was taken into custody by the police in connection with the riots that spread across the UK following the murder of three young girls in England last month.

The individual who was arrested from the Defence area was identified as Farhan Asif. He has been accused of spreading misinformation through his website about the identification of the boy who killed the girls.

Lahore DIG Operations Faisal Kamran informed that Asif has been handed over to the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA). It would conduct further investigation into the identities of the others involved and uncover more details related to the case.

On July 29, three girls were stabbed to death and five other children were critically wounded during an attack on a Taylor Swift-themed event in the northern English town of Southport, Reuters reported.

A day later, a large crowd of anti-Muslim protesters clashed with the police. The clashes were fueled by false news spread on social media identifying the attacker as a Muslim and an asylum seeker who had illegally arrived in the UK by boat a year ago.

A car is damaged outside a mosque in Southport on July 31, 2024, near Liverpool. Riot police clashed with far-right protesters last night outside a mosque near where three young kids died.AFP

Investigations into the misinformation and subsequent riots revealed that the website, Channel 3 Now, that spread the fake news was based in Lahore.

The connection was reported by BBC which claimed that a young man from Lahore, a hockey player from Nova Scotia, and a resident of Texas, USA, were involved in inciting recent riots in the UK. According to the report, all of them were connected to Channel 3 Now.

The BBC identified several individuals associated with the website and confirmed their existence through conversations with their friends and associates. The website was reported to make money by publishing crime news on social media.

As per the investigation, the misinformation had no connection to Russia, as was earlier suggested.

Website shut down

British television channel iTV News said the website appeared to have been shut down after it confronted Asif at his "luxury estate house" from where he allegedly ran it.

In an interview conducted six days ago, Asif denied being responsible for the violence that erupted following the false claims. "I don’t know how such a small article or a minor Twitter account could cause widespread confusion", he told iTV.

"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?"

The attack and racist riots

The Associated Press reported that about two dozen children were attending a summer vacation workshop when an attacker with a knife burst in. Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, died from their injuries. Ten other people were injured, among whom five girls and two adults were initially reported to be in critical condition.

A statement released by the Merseyside Police said the suspect was 17 years old and from Banks, Lancashire, about 8km (5 miles) from the site of the attack. Most notably, the police revealed that he was born in Cardiff, UK.

Days of unrest followed the attack as hundreds of far-right rioters indulged in violent protests, targeting Muslims and their properties in several towns and cities in the UK. The rioters also targeted mosques and smashed windows of hotels housing asylum-seekers from Africa and the Middle East, chanting "get them out".

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (C) speaks with Jehangir Malik (R), a member of the mosque management team, and Sohail Hasani (L), founding trustee of the mosque and community center, during a visit to The Hub - Solihull Mosque in Solihull, West Midlands, on August 8, 2024.AFP

Messages online said immigration centres and law firms aiding migrants would be targeted.

Till last week, British authorities had arrested more than 1,000 people. Many have been swiftly jailed, with some receiving long sentences

On Aug 13, the National Police Chiefs' Council said that 1,024 had been arrested and 575 charged across the UK. A 13-year-old girl also pleaded guilty to violent disorder at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court, prosecutors said, having been seen on July 31 punching and kicking the entrance to a hotel for asylum seekers.