Social media handles of Indian Army’s Chinar Corps have been blocked by Facebook and Instagram. Chinar Corps, is a Corps of the Indian Army which is strategically located in Srinagar and is responsible for military operations in the Kashmir valley. It has participated in all military conflicts with Pakistan and China. The social media handles of the Corps have been blocked for over a week now and the officials have not responded to the official communication in this regard.
“We reached out to them soon after the handles were blocked. But we haven’t got any response yet.”
The officials added that the handles were blocked soon after Republic Day celebrations. The Facebook handle @ChinarCorpsIA had over 24,000 followers and over 23,000 likes and is even tagged as a “government organisation”. On the other hand the Instagram account had around 43,300 followers. It also said, “Welcome to the Official Account of Chinar Corps, Indian Army”.
The pages were created to bust the lies and propaganda flowing from across the border. The pages used to make people aware about the actual situation in Kashmir valley, an official said.
A senior official said that the authorities concerned in Facebook has not yet responded regarding the matter. “A link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed” read the messages on both Facebook As well as Instagram pages of the Chinar Corps.
An official said that it appears to be a coordinated campaign, this has happened earlier as well, some social media accounts were blocked last year for a few days. Hinting at Pakistan, they said sometimes the pages might be reported by a large group of people as a part of a “coordinated” campaign, which can result in the page being suspended.