Shoaib Akhtar, Basit Ali’s YouTube channels banned; List of Pakistan cricketers’ YT handles still accessible in India

YouTube channels of former Pakistan cricketers Shoaib Akhtar and Basit Ali are among those which were banned in India following the deadly Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 that took the lives of 26 innocent souls mostly tourists. The Government of India on Monday (April 28) issued a circular to ban as many as 16 YouTube channels from Pakistan.

The decision was taken on the recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government of India for disseminating provocative and communally sensitive content, false and misleading narratives and misinformation against India, its Army and security agencies in the backdrop of the tragic Pahalgam terror incident in Jammu and Kashmir.

The total subscribers count of the banned 16 channels amounts to 63.08 million. Interestingly, the YouTube channels of Akhtar and Ali weren’t on the list of 16 which were banned by India.

“This content is currently unavailable in this country because of an order from the government related to national security or public order. For more details about government removal requests, please visit the Google Transparency Report (transparencyreport.google.com).” read a message while trying to open the YouTube channels of Ali and Akhtar.

List of Pakistan YouTube channels banned in India

1. Dawn News
2. Irshad Bhatti
3. SAMAA TV
4. ARY News
5. BOL News
6. Raftar
7. The Pakistan Reference
8. Geo News
9. Samaa Sports
10. GNN
11. Uzair Cricket
12. Umar Cheema Exclusive
13. Asma Shirazi
14. Muneeb Farooq
15. Suno News HD
16. Razi Naaam

However, there are still a few YouTube channels by former Pakistan cricketers which are still running in India. Among them are Umar akmal, Ahmed Shahzad, and former captains Salman Butt Shahid Afridi and Inzamam-ul-Haq. Among the five running in India, Afridi has most subscribers – 1.22 million followed by Inzamam (459K) Shahzad (235K), Butt (158K) and Umar (15.6K).