ISLAMABAD: Amid worsening ties between Pakistan and India, India has blocked the Instagram accounts of several Pakistani celebrities — including actors Mahira Khan, Hania Aamir, Ali Zafar and Olympic javelin star Arshad Nadeem — from being accessed.
Users in India trying to view these profiles are now greeted with the message: “Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.”
The move follows the deadly April 27 terror attack in Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 Indian tourists.
In the aftermath, the Indian government has taken several steps, including canceling SVES visas for Pakistani artists, suspending parts of the Indus Waters Treaty, and now targeting Pakistani digital presence.
Actors like Sanam Saeed, Bilal Abbas Khan, Iqra Aziz, Imran Abbas, and singer Ali Zafar, all widely popular in India due to their TV dramas and music, have also been affected.
Pakistan’s top javelin athlete Arshad Nadeem, who had earlier received an invitation to compete in the Neeraj Chopra Classic in Bengaluru, saw his Instagram account blocked too. He had declined the invitation citing prior commitments, well before the Pahalgam incident.
In India, the invitation to Arshad became a point of controversy. Neeraj Chopra, Olympic gold medallist and world champion, faced online backlash for extending the invite. In a social media post, Neeraj clarified that Arshad’s participation was “completely out of the question.”
Interestingly, Instagram accounts of Pakistani cricketers — including Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, and even former captain Shahid Afridi — remain accessible in India. However, the YouTube channels of Shahid Afridi and former pacer Shoaib Akhtar have been restricted.
Earlier India had also banned 16 Pakistani YouTube channels which include major Pakistani news outlets such as Dawn, Geo News, ARY News, Bol News, Samaa TV, Suno News, and Raftar.
YouTube channels of prominent journalists, including Irshad Bhatti, Asma Shirazi, Umar Cheema, and Muneeb Farooq, were also banned.,