Instagram accounts of several Pakistani celebrities — including actors Mawra Hocane, Ahad Raza Mir, Yumna Zaidi and Danish Taimoor — have been blocked again in India, days after they became temporarily visible to users in the country.
According to media reports, officials in the thick of events clarified that the temporary visibility was due to a technical error that caused the accounts to be inadvertently unblocked.
Accounts of Pakistani celebrities, athletes and diplomats, including Fawad Khan, Atif Aslam, Mahira Khan, Hania Aamir, Shoaib Akhtar and Hocane were first suspended in May, following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed at least 26 lives.
On July 1, however, Indian users noticed that Instagram accounts of some of these public figures, including Hocane and Zaidi, had become visible. The brief access reportedly triggered strong criticism from the All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA), which demanded a total severing of cultural ties with Pakistan in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At the time the report was filed on Thursday, an attempt to view the restricted Instagram accounts yielded the following message: “Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.”
After the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, Hocane had expressed grief over the incident on social media. However, the actress called India’s retaliatory Operation Sindoor on May 7 a “cowardly act”, drawing the ire of netizens. Due to the controversy, Hocane was dropped from the cast of the upcoming sequel of Sanam Teri Kasam, a 2016 romantic drama co-starring Harshvardhan Rane.