The Indian government has banned 16 Pakistani YouTube channels on recommendations from its Ministry of Home Affairs, Pakistani and Indian media outlets reported on Monday.
Tensions have risen between the two Asian nations following a recent attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
The April 22 attack in Pahalgam killed 26 people, mostly tourists, and is one of the deadliest armed attacks in the disputed Himalayan region since the year 2000. Responsibility for the attack was allegedly claimed by the hitherto unknown The Resistance Front (TRF).
India, without offering any evidence, has implied cross-border linkages of the attackers, while Pakistan has strongly denied any involvement. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for a neutral probe into the incident.
The YouTube channels blocked by the Indian authorities include those of Dawn News, Samaa TV, ARY News, Geo News, Bol News, Suno News and Raftar.
Journalists whose channels were banned included Irshad Bhatti, Asma Shirazi, Umar Cheema, Muneeb Farooq and Rizwan Razi.
Dawn.com confirmed that these YouTube channels could not be accessed in India.
No authority or official in Pakistan has commented on the matter so far.
The sites were blocked in India on Monday, with a message reading it was due to an “order from the government related to national security or public order”.
Even renowned former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar’s channel was not spared. Uzair Cricket was another commentary channel reportedly banned in India.
The Pakistan Experience, a podcast channel by content creator Shehzad Ghias, said it was also banned in India.
“Is our minor podcast a national security risk?” it quipped in a post on X, sharing a screenshot of a message by YouTube addressed to the podcast account.
“In my opinion, Uzair Younus and I did quite a sensible balanced discussion on the issue. There is nothing in this podcast that warranted us getting banned in India,” Ghias asserted on X, sharing a link to the video titled ‘Are India and Pakistan about to go to war? - The aftermath of the Pahalgam incident’.
The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs claimed that these YouTube channels were pushing “false narratives” against India, its army and security agencies.
The Indian authorities further alleged that these channels were spreading “provocative, communally sensitive” content aimed at “inciting communal tensions”.
Indian news agency ANI shared the list on its X account.
On April 24, a day after India announced a slew of measures, Indian media reported that the Modi-led regime had blocked the Pakistani government’s X account in the country as tensions escalated between the neighbours.
