Pakistan police have arrested 149 people in a raid on a scam call centre, the country’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) said on Thursday.

The agency told the BBC it acted after a tip-off about the network, which was operating in the city of Faisalabad.

It said the centre was involved in Ponzi schemes and tricked people into handing over vast sums of money in the name of fake investments.

Those arrested included 78 Pakistanis, 48 Chinese nationals, eight Nigerians, four Filipinos, two Sri Lankans, six Bangladeshis, two Myanmar nationals and one Zimbabwean national.
Eighteen of the 149 were women, the agency added.

A copy of a police report said victims of the alleged scam would initially receive a small return on their first investments, before being persuaded to hand over larger sums of money.

“The charged individuals ran WhatsApp groups where they lured ordinary people by assigning small investment tasks like subscribing to different TikTok and YouTube channels,” the agency said.

“Later, they shifted them to Telegram links for further online tasks requiring larger investments.”

Pakistani citizen Muhammad Sajid told BBC Urdu that he was added to a Telegram channel with tens of thousands of members and was impressed by the company’s work. He said he gave them more than 3.138 million rupees ($36,600) in various instalments.

The raid, which took place on Tuesday, saw authorities seize hundreds of computers, servers, cryptocurrency exchanges and foreign SIM cards from the site.

On Wednesday, 149 suspects appeared in court, 87 of whom were handed over to the NCCIA on a five-day physical remand.

A further 62 suspects have been transferred to the district jail on judicial remand until 23 July.

The agency said the raid was at the residence of Malik Tehseen Awan, the former head of Faisalabad’s power grid, who has not been arrested.

(BBC News)

The All Island Canteen and Restaurant Owners’ Association has announced a Rs. 10 increase in the price of a cup of milk tea.

Association President Harshana Rukshan stated that the decision was made in response to the recent rise in the price of imported milk powder.

Commissioner General of Examinations – A.K.S. Indika Kumari announced that 237,026 students have qualified for the G.C.E. Advanced Level (A/L) based on the 2024 G.C.E. Ordinary Level (O/L) Examination results, representing 73.45% of candidates.

She made these remarks at a press briefing held this morning (July 11) at the Department of Examinations, following the official release of the O/L results.

She noted that 13,392 students (4.15%) secured ‘A’ passes in all 09 subjects, while 2.34% failed all subjects.

The Southern Province recorded the highest pass rate, with 75.64% of candidates qualifying for A/Ls.

The provincial pass percentages are as follows:

•  Southern Province – 75.64%
• Western Province – 74.47%
•  Eastern Province – 74.26%
• Central Province – 73.91%
• Sabaragamuwa Province – 73.44%
• Uva Province – 73.14%
• North Western Province – 71.47%
• North Central Province – 70.24%
• Northern Province – 69.86%

Subject-wise Performance as follows:

• Buddhism – 83.21%
• Saivanery (Hinduism) – 82.96%
• Catholicism – 90.22%
• Christianity – 91.49%
• Islam – 85.45%
• English – 73.82%
• Sinhala Language and Literature – 87.73%
• Tamil Language and Literature – 87.03%
• History – 82.17%
• Science – 71.06%
• Mathematics – 69.07%

(Previous news 2025 July 11 – 7.27.a.m.)

2024 O/L Exam results released

The results of the 2024 G.C.E. Ordinary Level Examination have been released online, the Department of Examination announced.

Accordingly, the Examinations Department announced that the examination results can be obtained from the websites: www.doenets.lk or www.results.exams.gov.lk.

The examination department requests applicants to contact the following hotlines if they seek to make any inquiries regarding these results: 1911 or 011 2 785 922, 0112 786 616, 011 2 784 208 or 011 2 784 537.

The statement further said that applications for the scrutiny of the O/L results will be called from July 14 to July 28.

A total of 474,147 applicants sat for the G.C.E. Ordinary Level Examination this year, of which 398,182 were school applicants and 75,965 private candidates.

The O/L examination was conducted at 3,663 examination centers from March 17 to 26.