NCCIA books PTI leader Junaid Akbar under PECA over Somnath remarks
The FIR cites his TikTok account with 339,500 followers and quotes his threat to turn Islamabad into Somnath ahead of the September 27 march.
The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on Wednesday registered a case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president and member of the National Assembly Junaid Akbar under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, ARY News reported. The case concerns remarks he made ahead of the party's planned September 27 protest in Islamabad.
The first information report was lodged on behalf of the state by Muhammad Umair Warsi, a technical assistant at the NCCIA Cyber Crime Reporting Centre in Islamabad, under sections 9, 10 and 11 of PECA. According to the FIR, a complaint was submitted to the agency about alleged anti-state content shared through Akbar's official TikTok account. The account had around 339,500 followers, giving the material wide reach and public engagement, the FIR noted.
The FIR quoted the PTI leader as saying: 'We will turn Islamabad into Somnath; just as there were 17 attacks on Somnath, there will be 17 attacks on Islamabad.' The agency alleged that the statement promoted hatred, encouraged people to take the law into their own hands, and created risks to public safety as well as government and public property.
The registration comes days before PTI's planned nationwide march towards Islamabad on September 27, which the party says is aimed at securing the release of its founding chairman Imran Khan. Akbar made the remarks while addressing a gathering in Peshawar on September 20. He said supporters would enter Islamabad through several routes, including the motorway and Grand Trunk Road, while others would come via the Margalla Hills and from Dera Ismail Khan.
After the remarks drew criticism, Akbar sought to clarify them, saying the Somnath reference had been given a 'wrong spin' and that the party remained committed to peaceful protest and constitutional means. The historical reference concerns Mahmud of Ghazni's campaign against the Somnath temple in India in the early eleventh century. Dunya News also carried the story, with a headline emphasising Akbar's message to the government and PTI's refusal to back down.
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