More Pakistani Social Media Accounts, Including Abida Parveen’s, Get Banned

It was sometime in the early part of the last decade that India and Pakistan began to witness some cross-cultural exchanges, particularly in their film and television industries. Pakistani shows such as Humsafar and Zindagi Gulzar Hai, broadcast from Indian channels, found large audiences here, and Pakistani actors like Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan began to be signed up by large Bollywood production houses. India had also recently hosted Pakistan in what turned out to be their last bilateral tour. There was optimism in the air, as various media outlets spoke about how through this venture of culture and sports, the two countries were perhaps beginning to put their troubled history behind them. One glossy even put Fawad Khan on its cover and dubbed him ‘The New Khan’, as though Bollywood’s reigning Khans may be giving way to this new one, from the wrong side of the border?

It was of course all a bit too naive. And all it required was the Uri attacks of 2016 for all that wishful thinking to come undone. There has effectively been a ban on such cultural exchanges since then. Which producer would anyway been foolhardy to forget the sight of Maharashtra’s chief minister Devendra Fadnavis brokering a peace deal between Raj Thackeray and Karan Johar over Fawad Khan-co-starring Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’s release, with Johar having to cough up Rs 5 crore as ‘penance’ to an army welfare fund?

Today, as ties between India and Pakistan plunge to a new low after the terror attacks in Pahalgam, apart from the slew of official measures taken against Pakistan, culture is once again on the target.

New Delhi appears to have had the social media accounts of several Pakistani artistes geo-blocked in India. It began with blocks against a number of Pakistan-based YouTube channels, including those of major news outlets, with the Indian government citing national security and accusing the channels of spreading false narratives. This was followed with Indian fans waking up to find that many of accounts of Pakistani personalities and celebrities they followed were now inaccessible. These included popular figures like Mahira Khan, Ali Zafar, Hania Aamir, Sanam Saeed, Bilal Abbas Khan, Iqra Aziz, Imran Abbas, and Sajal Aly. In recent times, more blocks have been discovered, from the Instagram account of Pakistan’s Olympic gold medal-winning javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem to the YouTube channels of popular former cricketers like Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi and Basit Ali.

Today, a new slew of geo-blocks seems to have been enforced. These include the renowned Pakistani Sufi singer Abida Parveen who has a vast following among Indian listeners. Another new set are the Instagram accounts of leading current and former Pakistani cricketers. This includes current stars like Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shan Masood, Hasan Ali, Naseem Shah, Imam-ul-Haq, and Shadab Khan, but also past luminaries and popular commentators like Wasim Akram. Unsurprisingly, the Instagram account of former Prime Minister and cricket captain Imran Khan is also blocked.

A lot of these steps were preceded by the action taken against the film Abir Gulaal. One of the rare cultural collaborations between the two countries in India, this Bollywood film starring Fawad Khan and the Indian actress Vaani Kapoor, was set to release next week. But the Pahalgam attacks put paid to any such plan. The film’s release has been banned in India, according to reports, and it appears Pakistan has responded by banning the film there too, on the pretext that it stars an Indian actress (Vaani Kapoor). It is one of the few areas that the two countries seemed to have come into such quick agreement on.

 

Ali Zafarand Sajal AlybannedBilal Abbas KhanFawad KhanHania AamirImran AbbasIqra AzizMahira KhanNews BriefPahalgamPakistani actorsSanam Saeedsocial mediaWeb Exclusive