training to its militants, citing the statements of various Pakistani sources, including officials and a senior Karachi police officer. The report was rejected by both the Indian government and the MQM, and others, such as journalists Barkha Dutt. A 2017 study stated that the BBC story received considerable media attention in Pakistan, while it was downplayed by the media in India. In 2019, the BBC (along with Reuters and Al-Jazeera) reported that large scale protests had broken out in Indian Kashmir in response to the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government initially criticized these reports of being "fabricated", but later acknowledged the protests did take place. A 2019 BBC report accused the Pakistan army of committing human rights abuses during Pakistan's war on terror in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The Pakistani armed forces rejected the report, and the Pakistani Ministry of Information registered a complaint with the British office of communications. In 2021, a BBC interview with political scientist Christine Fair was interrupted and Fair dismissed by News presenter Philippa Thomas when Fair began to elaborate on links between Pakistan and the Taliban. This invited further accusations of pro-Pakistan bias on the part of the BBC on social media. Criticism of BBC reporting on Israeli–Palestinian conflict Criticism of the BBC's Middle East coverage, especially related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, from supporters of both Israel and the Palestinians led the BBC to commission an investigation and report from a senior broadcast journalist and senior editorial advisor Malcolm Balen that was referred to as the Balen Report and completed in 2004. The BBC's refusal to release the report under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 resulted in a long-running and ongoing legal case. The BBC eventually overturned a ruling by the Information Tribunal that rejected the BBC's refusal to release the Balen Report to Steven Sugar, a member of the public, under the Freedom of Information Act on the grounds that it was held for the purposes of journalism. The report examines BBC radio and television broadcasts covering the Arab–Israeli conflict. On 10 October 2006, The Daily Telegraph claimed, "The BBC has spent thousands of pounds of licence payers' money trying to block the release of a report which is believed to be highly critical of its Middle East coverage. The corporation is mounting a landmark High Court action to prevent the release of The Balen