Man held for creating fake Twitter accounts with names of retired army officers

ISLAMABAD: A man has been arrested for allegedly creating fake Twitter accounts in the names of retired army officers, Geo News reported on Wednesday.

Sources privy to the matter said the bogus social accounts were aimed at creating division and differences among the officers of the Pakistan Army on a political basis.

Earlier, fake voice clips of General (retd) Haroon Aslam and General (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg were spread on social media recently. Such a forgery and fraud have become a business these days, the sources added.

An impression of division in the ranks of the army was being created through such fake social media accounts. The authorities were tightening the noose around such elements, the sources added.

In a confessional video obtained by Geo News, the suspect, Sadaqat Hussain, a resident of Sargodha, said that he has been running his Twitter account for the past almost 7 years. A political party leader Sardar Shahzad Ahmed Khan Maken approached him and subsequently, he was appointed by PTI social media team Tehsil Shahpur.

Hussain said that he was added to different groups. He maintained that the PTI Canada chapter’s information secretary Talat Kashif trained him about the social media trends.

He admitted that he created fake accounts with the names of Maj Gen (R) Muhammad Asghar, Maj Gen Faisal Mushtaq and others.

The suspect said that the aim of the social media account was creating an impression that the retired army officers were supporting a certain political party.