Widespread violent anti-immigrant riots engulfed many parts of the United Kingdom at the end of July, and beginning of August in which dozens of people were injured while scores of public property and some mosques were vandalised, but some of the fuel poured on the fire was by a digital media outlet that operates out of Lahore, Pakistan.
Anti-immigration riots were sparked in the UK and Northern Ireland after a 17-year-old man went on a mass stabbing spree at a Taylor Swift dance school in Southport in which three children were killed while 10 others were injured.
While police arrested the suspect, per their regulations, they did not issue any details identifying him since he was a minor. With speculation rife, a website called Channel 3 Now posted a report identifying the suspect as a Muslim illegal immigrant named Ali Al-Shakati.
The news went viral and sparked riots, with people of colour, Muslims and immigrants - including asylum seekers who the government was housing - targeted. It prompted UK courts to make an exception and release the attacker's identity as an African-origin but British-born Christian Axel Muganwa Rudakubana.
Fingers were pointed towards major social media influencers such as Elon Musk and Muslim revert Andrew Tate who amplified the anti-immigration sentiment. It is pertinent to mention that the incident came just a few weeks after videos emerged of two Pakistani-origin Muslims being stomped on by police outside the Manchester Airport.
But an ITVX investigation into the rumours that sparked the violent protests was traced to, among others across the world, a Lahore resident named Farhan Asif.
Asif works for Channel 3 Now. The Channel 3 Now fake report claimed the attacker was an illegal immigrant who was seeking political asylum in the UK. The report also claimed that the alleged attacker had arrived in the UK some time ago on a boat (a euphemism used to denote those who have travelled illegally to the UK on a boat from France.)
This report fuelled the narrative promoted by extreme far-right groups in the UK and anti-immigration supporters who took to the streets in violent protests.
It prompted the newly elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to condemn the riots and attacks on Muslim communities as 'far-right thuggery'.
British police arrested several rioters and then, after the riots, arrested scores of people who were involved in promoting violence, including teenagers. Several protesters were sentenced as well.
In the ITVX investigation, Asif was confronted about the article, to which he responded that they did publish the news piece, which should have never gone up. He said that they had also published an apology and fired four to five people who were involved in writing and researching the article.
However, he was of the view that a small news website could not be blamed for the riots.
It is pertinent to note that days after the riots, another stabbing attack took place in the UK where a child was targeted, but a Muslim security guard, identified as Abdullah, threw himself on the assailant and pinned him down to thwart the attack.