According to indepdent reports Pakistan’s largest ISP PTCL has blocked access to alislam.org the official website of the persecuted Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. This is not the first time Pakistan has used its internet censorship system to block access to the community’s website. In a similar drive by the Pakistan Government in 2008 access to the persecution.org was restricted. ThePersecution.org maintains records & reports on the worldwide persecution of Ahmadis in various countries.
Pakistan has already been accused of excessive internet censorship after social networking site Twitter was blocked back in May in what people described as a continued onslaught against internet freedom by Pakistan.
Ahmadis have been quick to raise their voice against the blockade and have taken to Twitter in protest of PTCL’s to decision to ban the community’s official website, and the #Ahmadiyya twitter trend in Pakistan reflects the amount of support they have. Most of them see the action by the Pakistani ISP as another form of persecution.