Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Wasim Akram joined the list of Pakistan players who got their Instagram handle blocked in India as the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack continued on Friday. The list of restricted accounts also includes Test captain Shan Masood, pacers Hasan Ali and Naseem Shah, batter Imam-ul-Haq, all rounder Shadab Khan and former stars Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi. Also, the account of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister and cricket captain Imran Khan is also now inaccessible in India.
Users attempting to access their Instagram page from India are met with the message: “Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.” “We received a legal request to restrict this content. We reviewed it against our policies and conducted a legal and human rights assessment. After the review, we restricted access to the content in the location where it goes against local law,” added the note from Instagram.
Twenty-six people, mostly tourists, were killed and several injured when terrorists opened fire at a meadow near the popular tourist town of Pahalgam in south Kashmir on April 22. The government has since cracked down on Pakistani social media accounts that have large following in India.
On Thursday, Pakistan’s Olympic gold medal winning javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem also had his Instagram account blocked in India.
Earlier in the week, former Pakistan cricketers Shoaib Akhtar, and Basit Ali’s YouTube channels were blocked in India following “an order from the government related to national security or public order”.
The central government officially blocked 16 Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly disseminating “provocative and communally sensitive content”. Dawn News, Irshad Bhatti, SAMAA TV, ARY NEWS, BOL NEWS, Raftar, The Pakistan Reference, Geo News, Samaa Sports, GNN, Uzair Cricket, Umar Cheema Exclusive, Asma Shirazi, Muneeb Farooq, SUNO News and Razi Naama are the other Pakistani channels banned in India.
