The interior ministry instructed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on Friday to block “illegal VPNs” throughout Pakistan, alleging their use by terrorists to facilitate violent activities and access indecent and blasphemous content.

“VPNs are increasingly being exploited by the terrorists to facilitate violent activities and financial transactions in Pakistan,” the ministry said in a letter.

VPNs, or virtual private networks, are commonly used worldwide to bypass restrictions and access blocked sites. In Pakistan, they are frequently employed to reach websites such as X and other restricted platforms.

Earlier this week, the PTA announced plans to limit VPN usage in the future to reduce access to indecent material. This decision follows a recent disruption that rendered VPNs inoperable across the country.

In its statement, the PTA reported that it has blocked over 100,183 URLs containing blasphemous content and 844,008 indecent websites. The authority also noted that there are around 20 million daily attempts from within Pakistan to access unethical sites, all of which are blocked at the international gateway level.

The PTA issued a statement detailing its performance just a day after the religious affairs ministry urged the regulator to block such content.

But the ministry’s letter claimed that the VPNs were used for terrorist activities.

“Of late, an alarming fact has been identified, wherein VPNs are used by terrorists to obscure and conceal their communications,” the letter said. “VPNs are also being used [to] discreetly access pornographic and blasphemous contents.”

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Furthermore, the letter pointed out that Pakistan ranks among the leading countries in terms of visits to indecent sites using VPNs. This alarming trend, the ministry argued, necessitates the prohibition of unauthorised VPNs to combat such critical threats effectively.

“It is, therefore, requested to block illegal VPNs across Pakistan so that legitimate/registered VPN users are not affected.”

Moreover, it added that registration of VPNs with PTA may be made till November 30.