Following the Pahalgam terror attack, India blocked Pakistani javelin star Arshad Nadeem's Instagram account as part of a diplomatic crackdown.
Pakistan javelin star and Paris Olympics gold medalist Arshad Nadeem has been blocked in India more than a week after a gruesome terror attack that took place in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
The Pahalgam terror attack witnessed the killing of 28 tourists, including 26 Indians and two foreign nationals by the terrorists who opened fire on civilians in Baisaran Meadows, which is 7 kilometres away from the main town of Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Jammu and Kashmir. Following the gruesome attack on innocent lives, the Indian Government has taken strong measures against Pakistan as part of its diplomatic crackdown.
The Indian Government had asked Pakistani nationals residing in India under SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) to leave the country in 48 hours. The union government further suspended the visa services of Pakistani nationals with immediate effect.
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Arshad Nadeem’s Instagram account blocked with ‘legal request’
The Indian Government decided to take action against the social media accounts of top Pakistan athletes as part of the diplomatic and digital retaliation to the brutal terrorist attack in Pahalgam. Among them is Pakistan Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem, whose instagram account was blocked.
The legal request was sent by the Indian Government to Instagram to restrict access to Nadeem Arshad’s Instagram account in India. Users tried to attempt access to Pakistan javelin star’s Instagram account ‘arshadnadeem29’ and they came across a message stating ‘Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.’
Instagram received a legal request to restrict the content of Arshad Nadeem on the platform and conducted legal and human rights assessment before geo-blocking the account in India in accordance with local laws and platform policies.
“We received a legal request to restrict this content. We reviewed it against our policies and conducted a legal and human rights assessment. After the review, we restricted access to the content in the location where it goes against local law,” Instagram stated.
Earlier, the Indian Government requested YouTube to ban the account of former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar’s channel, which had 3.81 million subscribers. YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, took down Akhtar’s channel based on the legal request by the government.
Arshad Nadeem invited by Neeraj Chopra for NC Classic
Before the Pahalgam Terror Attack, Pakistan javelin throw star was invited by his Indian counterpart Neeraj Chopra for the NC Classic at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore. Arshad Nadeem defeated Neeraj to clinch his maiden Olympic Gold medal, while Indian javelin star settled for silver, failing to defend his Olympic gold medal which he won at the Tokyo Games 2021.
Though Nadeem declined Neeraj’s request to participate in the NC Classic, the latter received a severe backlash on social media for Pakistani javelin throw for the event in India. A few days after the Pahalgam terror attack, Neeraj broke his silence and claimed the invitation sent to Nadeem was from "one athlete to another" and there was "nothing more" to it.
"I usually am a man of few words, but that doesn't mean I will not speak up against what I think is wrong. More so when it comes to questioning my love for our country, and the respect and honour of my family.” Neeraj wrote in a statement he shared on X.
There has been so much talk about my decision to invite Arshad Nadeem to compete in the Neeraj Chopra Classic, and most of it has been hate and abuse. They haven't even left my family out of it. The invitation I extended to Arshad was from one athlete to another - nothing more, nothing less," the statement added.
Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem have competed against each other in the South Asian Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, and the Olympic Games.
