NEW DELHI:
India expanded its punitive measures against Pakistan on Saturday, prohibiting the importation of goods from or transating through Pakistan and except for the Pakistani ships, as well as blocking access to the social media accounts of Pakistani actors and cricketers.
The General Directorate of Indian Foreign Trade said in a notification that the prohibition would immediately take effect. “This restriction is imposed in the interest of national security and public policies,” he said.
India said that Pakistani loaded ships could not visit any Indian port, and Indian folders ships would not visit any port in Pakistan.
“This order is issued to guarantee the safety of Indian assets, load and connected infrastructure, in public interest and for the interest of the Indian shipment,” said the General Directorate of Shipping in a statement. Trade between the two nations has decreased in recent years.
In addition, the Indian Ministry of Communications issued a statement, saying that “he had decided to suspend the exchange of all the incoming mail categories and Pakistan plots through air and superficial routes.”
However, the measure is considered to a large extent symbolic, since the regular diplomatic outbreaks between the two neighbors for decades have prevented close economic ties. But cultural ties are still much stronger.
In social networks, India prohibited more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels on April 28 for supposedly disseminating “provocative” content, including Pakistani media.
On Saturday, more restrictions blocked access in India to the Instagram account of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The usual ones of the Bollywood Fawad Khan and Atif Aslam films were also out of the limits, as well as a wide range of Crick players, including star batters Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and the retired players Shahid Afridi and Wasim Akram.
The Instagram account of the Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem was no longer accessible to Indian users, reflecting the wide range of repression beyond Just Cricket.
India users who try to access these accounts are shown a message that indicates that they are not available due to the fulfillment of a legal application.
