Pakistan blocked access to YouTube yesterday because the website was carrying cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have sparked protests by Muslims across the world.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority ordered the country's 70 internet service providers to block YouTube because it contained “blasphemous content, videos and documents”, government officials said.

The cartoons were published by Danish newspapers in 2005 and reprinted earlier this month. “They asked us to ban it [YouTube] immediately ... and the order says the ban will continue until further notice,” said Wahaj-us-Siraj, the convener of the Association of Pakistan Internet Service Providers.

Publication of the cartoons led to protests in many Muslim countries, including Pakistan, in which at least 50 people were killed and three Danish embassies attacked. Five people died in Pakistan during the riots, while a cleric offered $1 million (£500,000) and a new car for anyone who killed any of the cartoonists.

In the latest protests over the cartoons in Pakistan, hundreds of Islamists in Karachi set fire to effigies of the Danish Prime Minister and the cartoonist yesterday. “Death to cartoonist,” the demonstrators chanted before burning the effigies, as well as the American and Danish flags, outside a mosque. “It is a deliberate attempt to malign Islam and hurt the feelings of Muslims,” Habib Shah Kerani told the protesters from the Anjman-e-Islam (Organisation of Islam) group.

Supporters of Imran Khan, the former Pakistani cricket captain, who now leads a small opposition party, also staged a small protest in Karachi.In Quetta, activists burnt a Danish flag and demanded that the Government should close Danish missions in Islamabad and cut diplomatic links.

There have been similar protests around the world since at least 17l Danish newspapers reprinted one of the cartoons earlier this month when police in Copenhagen uncovered a plot by two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin to kill the cartoonist.

Sudan set to expel Danish groups

Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, is threatening to expel Danish organisations, including the Danish Refugee Council and Danish Red Cross, because of the republication of the cartoons. He also wants to snub Danish officials and boycott the country’s products. The Red Cross runs large projects to alleviate suffering in the western Darfur region. The order was announced by the presidential palace and state news agency yesterday. A public announcement of the measures is expected on Wednesday. (AP)

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