Karachi, Oct 23 A 14-year-old Pakistani girl has been rescued in Karachi after allegedly being targeted by an international online network accused of coercing children into self-harm and other abusive behaviour.
The network, known as “764”, has been linked to cases of online abuse targeting children in multiple countries, according to investigators.
Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) was alerted that the girl’s life was at risk by an international agency investigating the network.
Using an IP address provided by the agency, the NCCIA traced it to a house in Karachi, where the girl was found, and established that she had been targeted through online games and social media platforms.
Tariq Nawaz, additional director of the NCCIA in Pakistan’s Sindh province, confirmed the case on Friday and said the group had forced the girl to kill her pet cat and was coercing her into further harmful behaviour, including self-harm.
He said investigators were also trying to identify two other possible victims in Pakistan.
Nawaz said the girl was initially approached through interactive online games and was later contacted through two social media platforms.
“She was first asked to share photographs and was then told to kill her pet cat,” he said.
After she complied, the group allegedly threatened to release the photographs and coerced her into further acts, including sexually explicit acts, Nawaz said.
The 764 network emerged in Texas in 2021 and grew out of a wider online community involved in activities including sextortion and the distribution of child sexual abuse material.
An international investigation published in 2024 by The Washington Post, WIRED, Der Spiegel and Romania’s Recorder documented how interconnected online groups targeted children and vulnerable people across nearly a dozen countries, coercing victims into sexual exploitation, self-harm and animal cruelty.
In May 2025, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it had more than 250 investigations linked to 764.
US authorities have also arrested and charged alleged leaders of the network with operating an international child exploitation enterprise.
The FBI has warned that violent online networks commonly associated with 764 continue to target children internationally, using threats and blackmail to coerce victims into harmful acts.
Pakistan’s NCCIA investigators are now conducting forensic examinations of the devices used by the girl in an effort to identify members of the online group.
(PTI News)
