After over a fortnight of lockdown, the curbs in the valley of Jammu and Kashmir are being now relaxed in a phased manner. However, as a part of a major crackdown against Islamist propaganda, the government has issued blackout orders against illegal channels in the valley.
As per a report in Times Now, the government has ordered that all the cable operators operating in Jammu and Kashmir should immediately stop airing Pakistani TV channels propagating vicious propaganda in the prevailing situation.
#Breaking | Cable operators have been asked to air only permitted channels in the Valley; banning around 35 channels including Zakir Naik’s Peace TV. pic.twitter.com/yRATbUwxH1
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) August 20, 2019
Following directions from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the authorities had in July earlier banned 30 TV channels carrying Islamic and Pakistani content, including Zakir Naik’s Peace TV, few Arabic channels and some Pakistani news channels in J&K as these channels have been endorsing fake news and unleashing propaganda against India to instigate people to create confusion and chaos.
To plug this vicious attempt by these Pakistani propaganda channels, the government has asked the deputy commissioners and district magistrates to ensure a complete blackout of these channels in the valley.
The banned channels include Zakir Naik’s, Peace TV (Urdu and English), ARY QTV, Madni Channel, Noor TV, Hadi TV, Paigham, Hidayat, Saudi Al-Sunnah Al-Nabawiyah, Saudi Al-Quran Al-Karim, Sehar, Message TV, Hum TV, ARY Digital Asia, Hum Sitaray, ARY Zindagi, PTV Sports, TV One, ARY Masala, ARY Musik, ARY Zoug, A TV, Karbala TV, GEO News, Abb Takk News, ARY News Asia, Waseb TV, 92 News, Duniya News, Samma News, Geo Tez, Express-News, ARY News and Ahli-bait TV.
Sources said despite a ban, some cable operators were airing the channels and the authorities, taking note of the non-implementation of the previous order, have now issued another order and asserted that anyone caught flouting the rules would be tried under section 11 of the Cable TV Network Act.
After the Abrogation of Article 370 in the Jammu and Kashmir valley, along with these TV channels, various Pakistani and ISI Twitter handles have also been spreading fake and malicious news to create a fear-environment.
Meanwhile, the radical Islamist preacher Zakir Naik, who is being probed by Indian agencies since 2016 has been banned by many countries apart from India for his hate speeches and for peddling hate propaganda. In the latest, Malaysian authorities have imposed a nation-wide ban on radical Islamist preacher Zakir Naik from giving speeches. He was under investigation for his hate speech against non-Muslims in the country.
After UK and Canada, India and Bangladesh had also banned Peace TV which has often been used by ISIS recruiters for indoctrination and brainwashing. For inciting religious intolerance and violent extremism, Naik’s talks and speeches had been declared ‘highly objectionable’ by the Government of India.
Moreover, Sri Lanka too had on May 1, 2019, decided to follow suit and ban Zakir Naik’s peace TV.
Naik, who links with the Congress had also emerged, has been notorious in spreading hatred between religious groups and for inciting Muslim youth to join in the jihad against non-believers of Islam.
