Pakistan: Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube suspended over violent protests

New Delhi: In a surprising move, Pakistan government has suspended social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Telegram.

According to reports, these social media sites will remain suspended from 11am till 3pm today.

Pakistan Interior ministry said that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had suspended the social media platforms on its instructions.

2 cops killed in clashes, protestors want French envoy expelled

Earlier, on April 13, violent protests erupted across the country after Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan protesters took to the streets claiming the lives of two policemen and injuries to more than 300 people. The TLP protesters also damaged public and private property.

TLP has been demanding the government to expel the French ambassador and ban the import of goods from that country over blasphemy. The demonstrators have demanded that the French ambassador be sent home and import of goods from that country banned.

According to media reports, the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government signed an agreement with the TLP in November last agreeing to expel the French Ambassador.

The ministry, in the letter, had requested the PTA to take action against the issue “immediately”.

“I am directed to refer to the subject cited above and to state that complete access to social media platforms may be blocked from 11 am to 3 pm on April 16 2021, across the country,” Abdul Razaq the Section officer of the ministry wrote in the letter.

“It is requested that immediate action may be taken on the subject matter under the information to this ministry,” he added.

A PTA official told a local daily, “In order to maintain public order and safety, access to certain social media applications has been restricted temporarily.”

The TLP is protesting against the arrest of their leader Saad Hussain Rizvi, who was taken into custody earlier this week, and blasphemous caricatures published in France.