Pak university student gets 2 years and 6 months in jail for learning how to make bombs on social media

Lahore: An anti-terrorism court here in Pakistan has handed down a two-year and six-month jail term to a university student for learning to make bombs on social media networking sites, an officer said on Monday.

Lahore's ATC Judge Manzer Ali Gill also imposed a fine of PKR 50,000 on Hannan Abdullah, a human resource studies student of the University of Narowal in Punjab, who was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in 2022 on the charges of seeking information about making bombs at a social media networking site in Iraq.

"The prosecution informed the court that Abdullah was learning how to make bombs on Facebook and Instagram. He also established contacts with terrorists and a banned outfit through Facebook in this regard," Dawn quoted the FIA officer as saying.

The prosecution also submitted evidence to the court in this regard. Abdullah was on bail since 2023 and was arrested after the sentencing.

The officer said Abdullah in 2022 used the Instagram handle 'Ibn-e-Abdullah Al-Pakistani' to engage in a conversation with another user based in Iraq and sought information on how to make bombs at home.

"While interacting with a user -- 'Professional Cook 67' -- on Instagram, Abdullah received basic information on how to develop explosive devices using materials like ammonium nitrate, sulfur, ammonium powder, charcoal, and other components," he said.

This conversation was being monitored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The FIA officer said it received a complaint against the suspect from the FBI, which provided his (Abdullah) conversations with the Iraq-based account, and the email address used to create the Instagram handle 'Ibn-e-Abdullah Al-Pakistani'.

The officer said Abdullah used to watch bomb-making videos on YouTube and searched on the American e-commerce website Amazon for ingredients mentioned in the Instagram conversations related to bomb-making.

Abdullah, in his defence, told the court he sought bomb making information only out of curiosity.

No evidence was found to suggest that he tried to manufacture any explosive materials using the information or had allegiance with any terror organisation.