(Image source from: BBC)

Twitter said to have suspended 200 accounts in Pakistan after anti-India tweets started emerging from the country which was objected by the authorities in India.

The Pakistan government has specified to the microblogging site that 200 accounts that were suspended in the past week were apparently posting about Kashmir, according to Dawn News.

A large number of Pakistani Twitter users including journalists, activists, government officials and fans of the military over the last one week reported that their accounts were being suspended after they posted in support of Kashmir.

Simultaneously, #StopSuspendingPakistanis was trending on Twitter in Pakistan.

On Sunday, Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor had said the authorities had taken up with Twitter and Facebook the suspension of Pakistani social media accounts posting content on Kashmir.

Giving details about the complaint lodged with Twitter, the Prime Minister's Focal Person on Digital Media Arslan Khalid told Dawn news that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had lodged an official complaint with Twitter's regional office on Monday.

"We are approaching this case with a multi-pronged strategy where PTA has sent the complaint mentioning (200) accounts to the regional office seeking an explanation for their suspension. We are also working on a long-term strategy through the National IT Board (NITB) so that such a situation does not arise again," he said.

The Twitter account of Punjab chief minister on digital media, Mashwani Azhar was also suspended. A screenshot of Twitter's notice to Azhar purports that the platform suspended the account for impersonation.

Twitter, however, maintains that it enforced policies judiciously and ensured impartiality of all users, regardless of their political beliefs and country of origin, reports Dawn News.

"We believe people on all sides of an issue have a fundamental right to discuss them within the boundaries of our policies, which prohibit terrorism, hateful conduct, platform manipulation, and abuse. At Twitter, no one is above our rules."

The spokesperson did not comment on the reasons that led to certain accounts being suspended.

By Sowmya Sangam