A few days back, rumours started swirling that Pakistan had labelled actor Salman Khan a terrorist after he apparently mentioned Balochistan as separate from Pakistan. Now, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has stepped in and put those rumours to rest.
Pakistani government issues clarification
Some reports claimed Salman landed on Pakistan’s terror watch list. People even shared headlines saying things like, “Pakistan puts Salman Khan on terror watchlist after Balochistan remark.” But on Sunday, the ministry’s official fact-checking team jumped onto Twitter (well, X now) to clear things up.
They posted a screenshot of one of those headlines and stamped it with “Fake news / unverified.”
The post pointed out how the story got picked up: “Salman Khan has allegedly been placed on Pakistan’s ‘Fourth Schedule’ under its Anti-Terrorism Act after making remarks about Balochistan and is labelled a ‘terror facilitator’.” But the ministry said there’s zero evidence for any of this. There’s no government statement, no official notice, nothing on NACTA’s proscribed persons list, and nothing from the Ministry of Interior or provincial Home Departments. Basically, no official document anywhere.
False Claim About #SalmanKhan in Media: Here is #Pakistan govt clarification: Media Claim says Pakistan has added Salman Khan to its terror watchlist over his recent remarks on #Balochistan pic.twitter.com/H6iadsPxn6
— Dr. Sandeep Seth (@sandipseth) October 26, 2025
They also mentioned that every single report on this came from Indian media repeating the same claim, but not one traced back to an official Pakistani source or announcement.
So, the ministry summed it up: Without real proof, the claim’s just not true. They called it a sensational headline that isn’t backed up by facts. Then they suggested the only reason the story got so big was that it made for dramatic news.
What exactly happened?
Here’s what actually happened with Salman Khan: Earlier this month, he was at the Joy Forum 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on stage with Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan.
He talked about how Indian films are huge in the Middle East. He said, “Right now, if you make a Hindi film and release it here (in Saudi Arabia), it’ll be a superhit. If you make a Tamil, Telugu, or Malayali film, it’ll 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.”
What is the Balochistan controversy?
For context, Balochistan is a province in southwest Pakistan, bordered by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh. The region has pushed for more autonomy and sometimes independence since 1947, with renewed demands after Bangladesh became independent in 1971.
There’s a long history of human rights issues, resource struggles, and political conflict. Amnesty International reports that about 10,000 Baloch people have vanished in Pakistan since 2011.
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