Banned outfits in Pakistan operate openly on Facebook

Islamabad, May 30 : Forty-one out of Pakistans 64 banned outfits are present on Facebook in the form of groups and individual user profiles and were operating openly via the social media giant, a media report said.
According to an investigation carried out by Dawn news last month, the outfits’ network, both interconnected and public, is a mix of Sunni and Shia sectarian groups, global terror organisations operating in Pakistan, and separatists in Balochistan and Sindh provinces. The names of all banned outfits, including acronyms and small variations in spelling, were searched on Facebook to find pages, groups, and user profiles that publicly “liked” a banned outfit.The biggest outfits on the social network, in order of size, are Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) with 200 pages and groups, Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) with 160, Sipah-i-Sahaba (SSP) with 148, Balochistan Students Organisation Azad (BSO-A) with 54 and Sipah-e-Muhammad with 45, according to the Dawn news investigation.