Cyber agency in Karachi says it prevented a teenage girl from self-harming — Dawn

Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) said it prevented a teenage girl from self-harming in Karachi. As Dawn reports, law enforcement officers located her after receiving information from an unnamed foreign crime-investigation body.

Tariq Nawaz, the NCCIA’s additional director in Karachi, said the foreign agency had sent the agency an email. NCCIA specialists then traced the IP address associated with it and found the girl.

Contact through social media

According to Nawaz, the inquiry found that the girl had been influenced through social media by a group operating on the dark web. She later communicated with its members through a messenger app and received various tasks.

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The NCCIA official said that one of the tasks was to harm a pet. The agency located the girl before she carried out the next task, which, according to Nawaz, involved self-harm. The devices she had used were analyzed and seized for further examination.

Investigation continues

The girl’s parents told NCCIA officers that her behavior had changed three or four months earlier. According to them, she was often upset but did not explain the reasons despite questions from her relatives. An agency representative also said that the teenager received psychological counseling after the trauma she experienced.

The NCCIA is continuing its investigation to identify possible other victims and people involved in similar activities. Earlier this month, the agency received a tip from a foreign service in another case involving a teenager suspected of trying to poison his father after seeking advice from AI chatbots.