Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik threatens to block Google, YouTube

ISLAMABAD: Popular internet search engine Google and websites like YouTube could be shut down in Pakistan if they did not cooperate with authorities investigating crimes and incidents of terrorism, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has warned.

Malik made the remarks at the headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency here while interacting with reporters.

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 YouTube and search engine Google 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.