Islamabad: Interior Minister Rehman Malik
on Saturday warned that popular websites like Google and YouTube
could be shut down in Pakistan if they did not cooperate with
authorities investigating crimes and incidents of terrorism.
Malik made the remarks while interacting with reporters
at the headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency in
Islamabad.
He urged the websites to extend help to authorities to
exterminate terrorism from the country.
The government would be compelled to block certain
websites, including Google and YouTube, if they did not extend
cooperation to authorities, Malik said.
The Taliban and other terrorist organisations were
sharing intelligence through the Internet and it is imperative
to curb these activities, he said.
Malik did not give details of the crimes and incidents of
terrorism that the websites could provide information about.
TV news channels also quoted Malik as saying that he had
issued an order for a case to be registered against the
administrator of Google Pakistan.
The minister has faced criticism and ridicule from civil
society and rights groups for several of his recent comments.
Malik had recently claimed that jealous girlfriends and
wives, and not political groups or criminals, were responsible
for a majority of target killings in the southern port city of
Karachi.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, September 17, 2011, 22:44