Pahalgam Terror Attack / India bans Pakistani news channels- Shoaib Akhtar's YouTube channel also closed

India has banned 16 Pakistani YouTube channels after the Pahalgam terror attack. Shoaib Akhtar and major media channels are also included in the list. They are accused of broadcasting anti-India and inflammatory content. Also, a letter has been sent to the BBC for calling terrorists "militants".

Pahalgam Terror Attack: After the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April, the Indian government has taken a tough stand against Pakistan and banned several major YouTube channels. Acting on the recommendations of the Home Ministry, India has blocked channels that were spreading inflammatory, communally sensitive and misleading content against India, its army and security agencies.

Ban on many big YouTube channels including Shoaib Akhtar

The YouTube channels that have been banned include the channels of former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar and journalist Arzoo Kazmi, as well as YouTube channels of many major media institutions. Channels of big names like Dawn News, Sama TV, ARY News, Bol News, Raftar TV, The Pakistan Reference, Geo News, Sama Sports and Uzair Cricket have also been banned in India.

Total 6.3 crore subscribers affected

The total number of subscribers of these 16 banned YouTube channels is 63.08 million i.e. more than 6.3 crores. Among these, Geo News has the highest number of subscribers, which has 18.1 million subscribers. After this, ARY News has 14.6 million and Sama News has 12.7 million subscribers.

Notice also sent to BBC

The Government of India has sent a formal letter to the BBC along with this action. In this letter, objection has been raised that the BBC referred to the terrorists as 'militants' in its reporting, which misrepresents the reality. The government has sought clarification from the BBC on this and urged that caution should be exercised in the choice of words in matters related to terrorism.

India's clear message

This move of the Government of India is being considered a strong message that any kind of misleading and inflammatory content against the sovereignty, army and national security of the country will not be tolerated. The government has also indicated that such activities will be monitored in future as well and necessary action will be taken.