Demonstrations take place in the Pakistani port city of Karachi against the hanging of a militant leader by Iran.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The government pre-empted many demonstrations against Facebook
The Everybody Draw Muhammad Day on 20 May drew a furious reaction, perhaps expected by the creators, from Muslims across the world.
Condemnation turned to rage as Muslim bloggers across the net became involved in a counter-campaign.By far the fiercest reaction was in Pakistan, where anti-Western sentiment is already high.
But before any serious unrest could break out the country's authorities blocked the website – along with others like YouTube, Wikipedia and Flickr.
Many observers and internet users in Pakistan now feel the authorities have gone too far and used the Facebook row as an excuse to bar any content deemed too critical of the government.
‘Pre-empted’
Aleem Bawany, head of online strategy at the Express media group, shares these fears. But he believes the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority's (PTA) internet bans have "won over public sentiment" for now.
The Facebook row has added to anti-western sentiment
The PTA is the government's main internet regulatory body.
On orders from Pakistan's government, it was this body which blocked Facebook for users in Pakistan.
"The government thus pre-empted the protests," Mr Bawany said.
His views seem to be reflected by public opinion which has largely supported the ban.
"It's the first good thing that they have done," says Abeer Jamil, an accountancy trainee in Karachi.
"The page was never about freedom of expression – it was a deliberate attempt to insult the Prophet."
‘Why YouTube?’
However, it was not the government which started the ball rolling.
"The government did not ban Facebook – they only implemented the court orders," says Ali Dayan Hasan, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) representative in Pakistan.
Continue reading the main story
This flouts the basic principles of free expression
Ali Dayan HasanHuman Rights WatchInternet bans divide Pakistanis
He is referring to the orders of the Lahore high court to ban Facebook and any other website disseminating "blasphemous" content.
But Mr Hasan and many others believe that the government is exploiting the court order to impose widespread censorship.
He calls the court action "ill-advised" and says: "It appears the government of Pakistan has taken advantage of the situation.
"It has extended the scope of the censorship without any legal justification."
In effect, in the guise of blocking "blasphemous content", the government has also cracked down on political dissent on the internet.
"This is the first widespread censorship of the internet in Pakistan – and it has political overtones," says Mr Bawany.
He argues that various high-profile Facebook users are now being targeted.
"Former President Musharraf has a Facebook campaign under way – which he talks about all the time," he said.
"There are also several pages on Facebook against members of the current government."
Mr Bawany argues that while the government has a strong reason to block Facebook, their alibi falls flat when it comes to other web sites.
"Why YouTube, why Wikipedia?" he questions.
"Because YouTube in particular is used to disseminate political dissent against the government."
Pressure
Journalists point out that YouTube was also used to broadcast videos which highlighted abuse of power by the executive.
Many Pakistanis were angry at the Draw Muhammad Facebook page
"There have been videos uploaded which exposed the brutal treatment of civilians by the army and police," says a Lahore-based journalist.
"The army, in particular, was enraged at what it saw as propaganda against its legitimate actions."
All this pressure, analysts believe, has a great deal to do with the sweeping nature of the ban.
"They have blocked off all our sources of independent information," says Fawad Ali, a university student from Islamabad.
"I believe they should have blocked Facebook because they insulted the Prophet.
"But there was no strong grounds to ban YouTube and Wikipedia."
Mr Bawany argues that initial public support for the banning of Facebook has emboldened the government.
Analysts say this is an extremely important point – while the court ordered that the sites should be banned until 31 May, the government now says that they will be blocked until further notice.
"This flouts the basic principles of free expression," says Ali Dayan Hasan.
"The Pakistan government's actions underscore the dangers of legalising censorship. There is absolutely no justification for it."
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
At least 20 people have been killed in violence in the Pakistani city of Karachi, police say.
They say most of the dead were victims of drive-by shootings carried out by unidentified motorcyclists.
The bulk of Wednesday’s violence took place between rival ethnic groups in western and eastern parts of the city.
Correspondents say that while Karachi has not been spared Islamist militant violence in recent months, a bigger worry is factional violence.
The city was wracked by clashes between rival ethnic-based political factions for much of the 1990s in addition to sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis.
Intense gunfire
The provincial government closed all educational institutions in the city on Thursday and school exams were suspended for the day.
Many of the killings were followed by intense gunfire, police say.
Karachi city police chief Waseem Ahmed said that the dead included at least one member of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) party and four members of Awami National Party (ANP).
The MQM is supported by Karachi’s majority Urdu-speaking population whose ancestors migrated from India at the time of Indian partition in 1947. They mostly live in the central parts of the metropolis.
The ANP derives support from the city’s ethnic Pashtun population, which is spread across its western and eastern parts.
The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that the two parties have accused each other of carrying out targeted killings since 2007.
A number of ANP workers were killed in May 2007 when the MQM allegedly resorted to violence to prevent Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry – who at the time had been suspended by military ruler Pervez Musharraf – from addressing lawyers in Karachi. President Musharraf was supported by the MQM.
ANP Sindh province head Shahi Said said that Wednesday’s killings were part of an "ongoing process of ethnic cleansing" of Pashtuns in Karachi.
He said the killings were perpetrated by the "same people who were responsible for the 12 May (2007) killings" – a clear reference to the MQM.
But in an official statement on Wednesday night, the MQM blamed the killings on "infighting" between the ANP and those campaigning for a separate Hazara province in the north of the country.
The ANP governs what was known as North West Frontier Province but which last month changed its name to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The party was in the forefront of the campaign for the name change, which was vigorously resisted by people in the Hazara region.
Our correspondent says that people from both regions have a considerable presence in Karachi.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.