The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has rescued a 13-year-old girl in Karachi after a suspected dark web-linked network allegedly instructed her to poison a cat and later directed her to inflict serious harm on herself.
The agency intervened after an international intelligence alert provided Pakistani authorities with Internet Protocol (IP) addresses linked to suspicious online activity across 13 countries, including Pakistan.
NCCIA officials said that the girl had become involved with an online group that assigned her dangerous tasks. The first task allegedly involved poisoning a cat, which resulted in the animal’s death. The group then instructed her to seriously harm herself, but investigators located her before she could carry out the second task.
The NCCIA’s Karachi team began investigating the Pakistani IP address shared by the international agency to identify the person behind the suspicious activity.
However, investigators discovered that the individual associated with the address was a victim rather than a perpetrator, which led them to the teenager.
Officials stated that the international intelligence alert helped investigators identify the girl and intervene before she acted on the instructions to harm herself.
The girl’s parents had no knowledge of her involvement with the online group until NCCIA investigators contacted them. During questioning, they told investigators that they had noticed changes in their daughter’s behaviour over the previous six months but had not connected those changes to her online activities.
The agency informed the family about the teenager’s online interactions and the potential risks she faced.
Investigators are now tracing the accounts used to contact the girl and working to identify the people operating the suspected network. They are also examining whether other children in Pakistan have faced similar online targeting.
The NCCIA has not disclosed the identities or locations of the suspected operators. Officials have not announced any arrests as the investigation continues.
The dark web refers to a part of the internet that conventional search engines, including Google and Bing, do not index. Users typically need specialised software to access it, with the technology helping conceal their identities and online activities.
The dark web also has legitimate uses, including private communication and bypassing censorship. However, authorities also associate it with illegal activities such as drug trafficking, weapons sales and cybercrime.
