Pakistan Denies Putting Salman Khan On Terror Watchlist Over Balochistan Remark
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information has dismissed reports claiming Salman Khan was placed on a terror watchlist over his Balochistan remark, calling the viral news “unverified and false.”
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has officially dismissed the circulating reports that claimed Bollywood superstar Salman Khan had been placed on its terror watch list following his recent comments about Balochistan.
Pakistan government clarifies stance on Salman Khan reports
Over the weekend, the ministry’s fact-checking division issued a statement on X (formerly Twitter), refuting viral claims that the Tiger 3 actor was declared a “terror facilitator.” The post included a screenshot of a headline that read, “Pakistan puts Salman Khan on terror watchlist after Balochistan remark”, stamped with the label “Fake news / unverified.”
The clarification read, “No Pakistani government official statement, notification or entry was found on NACTA’s proscribed persons page or any Ministry of Interior / provincial Home Department gazette notifying Salman Khan’s inclusion in Fourth Schedule.”
It further noted, “All publicly available reports stem from Indian media outlets repeating the allegation, but none trace back to an official Pakistani watch-list publication or formal announcement.”
The statement concluded that, “In absence of verifiable primary evidence, the claim remains unverified and false. Given the optics, this appears to be a sensational headline rather than a substantiated fact.”
The ministry also suggested that the misinformation might have been driven by “sensational motives,” adding that no credible Pakistani source had ever confirmed the claim.
What Salman Khan had said
The controversy began after Salman Khan’s appearance at the Joy Forum 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he shared the stage with Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Speaking about the global reach of Indian cinema, Salman said, “Right now, if you make a Hindi film and release it here (in Saudi Arabia), it will be a superhit. If you make a Tamil, Telugu, or Malayali film, it will do hundreds of crores in business because so many people from other countries have come here. There are people from Balochistan, there are people from Afghanistan, there are people from Pakistan... everyone is working here.”
His mention of “Balochistan” in a way that appeared to treat it as separate from Pakistan sparked online debate and led to misleading claims that the Pakistani government had taken punitive action.
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