ISLAMABAD – Rights activists in Pakistan are facing “a targeted campaign ofdigital attacks”, Amnesty International said Tuesday, the latest warningabout the rising threat to campaigners in the country.

Attackers have used elaborate schemes to steal data and install spywareon Pakistani activists’ electronic devices, the watchdog said in a report.

The study – entitled “Human Rights Under Surveillance” – is based on theexperience of four activists out of a dozen cases investigated by Amnesty,the report’s co-author Sherif Elsayed-Ali told AFP.

One campaigner, Diep Saeeda, said she suffered sustained harassment byhackers after calling for the release of activist Raza Khan , who fellowcampaigners say was abducted from Lahore in December.

Saeeda told Amnesty that after she started campaigning for Khan’s release,she was lured by a hacker posing as an activist on Facebook into revealingher email address.

She was then sent emails disguised as messages from government departmentscontaining malicious links aimed at stealing her passwords and data.

“Every time I open an email I am now scared. It’s getting so bad I amactually not able to carry out my work,” Saeeda told the organisation.

Amnesty documented a series of similar methods used to try to contaminateactivists’ computers and phones with malicious software, some of which wascreated by “a network of individuals and companies based in Pakistan”.

The watchdog said it was unable to identify the entity orchestrating theattacks, but demanded that Pakistani authorities order an “independent andeffective” probe.

“It is already extremely dangerous to be a human rights defenderin Pakistan and it is alarming to see how attacks on their work are movingonline,” said Elsayed-Ali in a statement. – APP/AFP