ISLAMABAD After Facebook, another popular media namely YouTube also came under fire on Thursday for disseminating blasphemous material, hurting the Muslim sentiments across the globe, as the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) blocked its website on all cyber avenues. According to the official sources, the PTA has directed all concerned operators to shut down website www.youtube.com in view of growing sacrilegious contents on it. PTA has also decided to completely shut down these sites from being viewed within Pakistan. PTA did so, after all the possible avenues were used within its jurisdiction including use of regular channels available on the Facebook and YouTube, to protest and avoid appearances of derogatory material available on their websites, which increased in number as the time passed by, the officials added. PTA has so far blocked more than 450 links on Internet, containing derogatory material. It was not only in line with the Constitution of Pakistan, the wishes of the people of Pakistan but also an extension of the court orders passed by the Lahore High Court and directions of the Government of Pakistan. According to the officials, the attitude of administrators at Facebook and YouTube was in contravention to the WSIS resolutions and their own policies advertised on the web for general public. PTA would welcome the concerned authorities of Facebook and YouTube to contact the PTA for resolving the issue at the earliest, which ensures religious harmony and respect. It is also pertinent to note here that after the PTA has ordered blocking of both the Facebook and the YouTube, they are also blocked on the mobile phones. According to sources, the entire Blackberry service was halted early this morning for half an hour or so and later was restored after browsing restrictions on the sites in question. Agencies add: Pakistan has blocked the video sharing website YouTube indefinitely in a bid to contain blasphemous material, officials said on Thursday. The blockade came after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet Service Providers to stop access to social network site Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday. Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet Service Provider, said the PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an immediate block of YouTube. It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that, he told Reuters. YouTube was also blocked in the country in 2007 for about a year for what it called un-Islamic videos. PTA spokesman Khurram Ali Mehran said the action to block YouTube was taken after the authority determined that content considered blasphemous was being posted on the website. Before shutting down (YouTube), we did try just to block particular URLs or links, and access to 450 links on the Internet were stopped, but the blasphemous content kept appearing so we ordered a total shut down, he said. The PTA issued a statement on Thursday saying, it would welcome the concerned authorities of Facebook and YouTube to contact the PTA for resolving the issue at the earliest which ensures religious harmony and respect. The PTA decision to block all of Facebook also cut Pakistanis off from groups and pages dedicated to opposing the competition. Along with the ban, some other websites, including Wikipedia and Flickr, have been inaccessible in Pakistan since Wednesday night. But the authority spokesman said those sites had been blocked because of a technical reason and no orders had been issued against them. But he said the authority was monitoring other websites. Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, said the blocking of the two websites would cut up to a quarter of total Internet traffic in Pakistan. After the PTAs directives against Facebook and YouTube, Pakistani mobile companies blocked all Blackberry services on Wednesday night but restored services used by non-corporate users later on Thursday. Several thousand activists protested against the profane drawings and denounced the West in an expression of outrage that sparked comparisons with riots across the Muslim world in 2006 over the blasphemous drawings published in European newspapers. The caricatures appeared on Facebook after a private user asked people to submit blasphemous drawings of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in an online competition that sparked fury across the country. Dozens of members of the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami protested in Islamabad, calling for a boycott of Facebook and supporting a government ban of the website. Chanting Allahu Akbar and We love Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), they shouted Al-Jihad, Al-Jihad, denounced Israel and urged people to lay down their lives for Islam and the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). In Lahore, several thousand people organised five separate rallies. They chanted down with America and called for an end to diplomatic relations with Denmark, Sweden and Norway, trampling flags of those countries into the ground as an expression of disgust, an AFP reporter said. The Muslim nation should announce a Jihad against such blasphemous acts. We should stand up against these conspiracies, said Afzal Qadri, leader of the Tanzeem Ahle Sunnat party. In Karachi, about 200 people rallied to condemn the United States, where Facebook is based and branding the makers of blasphemous caricatures the biggest terrorists of the world, said an AFP reporter.