Southport riots: Money was 'main motive' of man charged with cyberterrorism in Pakistan

"The main motive was money," Lahore Police Deputy Inspector General Muhammad Faisal Kamran told ITV News

Produced by Ali Kaifee

Pakistani police say money was the main motive of a man charged with cyberterrorism after he allegedly spread disinformation related to the Southport attack.

The suspect, named by police as 32-year-old Farhan Asif, was arrested in Lahore, Pakistan on Tuesday and was charged on Wednesday.

The arrest follows an ITV News investigation revealing Asif's links to a website called Channel3Now, which amplified disinformation about the teenager charged with killing three young girls and injuring 10 others in a knife attack in Southport last month.

Channel3Now, which regularly publishes hyperbolic news stories under the pretence of being an American-style TV channel, was taken down hours after ITV News confronted Asif at his home address in Lahore.

Asif reportedly claimed four individuals were working on the site, but police confirmed to ITV News that he was working alone

The information incorrectly claimed the Southport suspect was a "17-year-old asylum seeker" named Ali al-Shakati, who was on "an MI6 watch list". This was shared widely on social media, with the false claim repeated millions of times.

Police in the UK have since clarified the Southport suspect was Axel Rudakubana, an 18-year-old from Lancashire.

After the fake news story spread, a violent mob attacked a mosque near the site of the stabbing the next day. Riots subsequently broke out across the UK and more than 1,000 people were arrested.

Deputy Inspector General of Lahore Police Muhammad Faisal Kamran told ITV News on Wednesday that Asif had regularly populated his website with "trending internet topics to gain more views, and ultimately more money."

Kamran said: "We came across the ITV report that stated the chaos and riots in the UK were linked to an account of a person in Pakistan, by the name of Farhan Asif

"The facts stated in the report, we wanted to verify them.

"The things we found out are of interest to the Federal Investigation Agency."

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Asif had previously claimed that he had four employees, each of whom had been fired after the disinformation had been published. Police have said this is false and that he was instead working alone.

Referring to the falsehoods reported about Southport, Asif told 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-four people who worked on it together, were all fired."

Mr Kamran rebutted the claim, adding: "We found out that there were no other people working with him. He was a freelance journalist who was working alone.

"He had other websites as well - some of which were banned after court orders."

Mr Kamran confirmed that no contact had been made with UK authorities officially at the time of writing.

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