Salman Khan speaks on stage during the ‘EAST TO WEST: The Global Rise of Bollywood’ panel at the 2025 Joy Forum at SEF Arena on October 17, 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Getty Images)
NEW DELHI: Bollywood actor Salman Khan has been labelled a “terrorist” by the Pakistani government after his recent remarks at the Joy Forum 2025 in Riyadh, where he mentioned Balochistan and Pakistan separately while speaking about the global reach of Indian cinema.As per multiple media reports, the Pakistani government has placed Salman under the 4th Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act (1997), a list usually reserved for people suspected of having links to terrorism.
A notification widely shared on social media reportedly issued by the home department of the government of Balochistan on October 16, 2025 (subject to verification) stated that Salman Khan was placed on the watchlist and the reason mentioned is that Salman is an ‘Azad Balochistan Facilitator’.
What did Salman say?
At the Riyadh event, attended by Salman, Shah Rukh Khan, and Aamir Khan, he said: “Right now, if you make a Hindi film and release it here, it will be a superhit. If you make a Tamil, Telugu, or Malayali film, it will do hundreds of crores because people from so many countries live here — there are people from Balochistan, there are people from Afghanistan, there are people from Pakistan… everyone is working here.”