The rise of Pakistan’s clickbait criminal

If a gangster shoots a rocket launcher in the forest and no one is around to see it, did it really happen?

Well, the infamous dacoits that infest the forested riverine and ‘kacha’ areas of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province would think not. They make sure that everyone sees their displays of weaponry and wealth as they take to social media to advertise their exploits.

Case in point: Recently a video circulated of a large group of dacoits firing an array of sophisticated automatic weapons into the wild. One of their comrades steps into the frame brandishing a rocket propelled grenade launcher, takes aim and fires it into the forest. There’s an explosion. Everyone cheers. The video ends.

In other clips you even see the dacoits performing their own version of community outreach, with local children invited to fire machine guns and small arms while other children run around excitedly collecting empty cartridges.

These clickbait criminals are as much about advertisement and recruitment as they are about intimidation; the local police are considerably less well-armed and effectively outgunned by them or terrified of retaliation. As for the few brave cops who do take a stand or conduct raids on the dacoits’ homes and hideouts, WhatsApp videos are circulated warning them by name and promising retaliation. These aren’t idle threats.

For robberies and kidnappings for ransom, social media platforms such as Facebook are increasingly being used to lure in victims. The tactics are simple and effective: dacoits will set up a social media account offering to sell a vehicle. Hapless interested buyers are then lured into barely populated areas and kidnapped. The victims are tortured and subjected to mock execution, all of which is recorded and sent via WhatsApp to terrified families along with exorbitant ransom demands.

Entire lorries laden with Iranian diesel routinely cross this border into Pakistan, and increasingly the drivers who ply these routes are not shy when it comes to being recorded.

Zarrar Khuhro

The ransoms are almost always paid, even though no one admits it.

But these are not the only criminals who have a digital media presence, as smugglers and human traffickers are also fond of posting their exploits on social media.

Take ‘Jarnal Musa,’ a notorious human smuggler specializing in illegally ferrying Pakistani youth to Europe. His TikTok and Youtube accounts have been operating for years, showing droves of satisfied customers giving testimonials to the efficacy of Musa’s network and the comfort in which they reached the shores of Europe. They’re seen being ferried in lorries by European drivers, hopping border fences using vendor-supplies stepladders and racing across busy highways under the watchful guidance of Musa’s employees.

After a brief crackdown on illegal emigration and the agents who enable it after the tragic 2023 sinking of a migrant ferry in the Mediterranean, Musa deactivated his accounts but is almost certainly back under a different handle, along with many of his competitors.

The preferred route of all such human smugglers is to cross the Pak-Iran border before setting off to Europe, and this border is also notorious for a roaring oil smuggling trade. Entire lorries laden with Iranian diesel routinely cross this border into Pakistan, and increasingly the drivers who ply these routes are not shy when it comes to being recorded. One local travel Youtuber’s feed is full of videos of him riding along with these smugglers (whom Pakistan border authorities somehow find impossible to stop) happily plying their trade to the background of dramatic music.

Smaller fry have gotten into the game as well, albeit with less success. Riding on a high of hash and testosterone, local thugs like Lahore’s ‘Bhola Tension’ have social media accounts with videos of them and their friends firing illegal weapons and displaying ammunition. It didn’t end well for tension as he also happened to inadvertently display his home address in the videos, leading to his arrest. Other social media criminals include a group of youths who barged into a house in Lahore’s DHA to kidnap a young man. In order to get social media fame, they decided to record the entire kidnapping in the hopes that the content would get them more followers. In this case, clickbait landed them in the clink.

The challenge all this criminal broadcasting poses for the already understaffed and ill-funded police is considerable. By using social media to lure victims and extort their families, criminals avoid falling prey to the more ‘traditional’ methods of policing, such as using informants or the setting up of roadblocks in areas known to be hotspots of kidnapping in order to interdict the kidnappers.

But there are opportunities as well, should one choose to exploit them. By monitoring videos on social media, police can use geolocation tools to hone in on criminals’ hideouts and could also stage online sting operations by posing as potential victims online.

It’s also a very cost effective way of monitoring criminals and gathering intelligence. In fact, this is a route that police forces around the world have already gone down. As far back in 2018, Aaron Concepcion, a gang investigator in New York stated that if a law enforcement agency has yet to incorporate social media investigations as a routine step during the investigation process, that agency is falling behind and missing out on a gold mine of intelligence gathering.

Unfortunately, local police in Pakistan, especially away from the big cities, has yet to learn to utilize even basic and easily available tools such as mobile phone location trackers in order to track down phone thieves and to date, only certain intelligence agencies have access to the needed technological solutions and monitoring software that – if used by the civilian police – could effectively make a dent in crime. As a result, the criminals are going viral, while the police sit around waiting.

- Zarrar Khuhro is a Pakistani journalist who has worked extensively in both the print and electronic media industry. He is currently hosting a talk show on Dawn News. Twitter: @ZarrarKhuhro