As Donald Trump was elected president of the United States (US), a controversial policy statement banning Muslims from the US appears to have been removed, The Independent reported.

A page linking to his Dec 7, 2015 statement regarding a temporary and complete Muslim ban was removed as votes poured in for the billionaire businessman turned politico, the report said.

The page, which was available on the morning of the Nov 8 election according to online caches, now redirects to a page encouraging voters to donate to Trump's campaign.

Explore: Donald Trump calls for keeping Muslims out of US

The Independent said it is not possible to say exactly what time the redirect added, but that a change had been made between the two times the website was last crawled by caches like 'Wayback Machine' which work by crawling websites intermittently and making copies of what they find there.

The Trump campaign could not be immediately contacted by The Independent for comments over the removal of pages.

Trump's campaign office in statement in Dec 2015 said, "Mr Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on."

The now president-elect had earlier also claimed that Muslim laws authorised "such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won’t convert, beheadings and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans, specially women".

Read more: Five controversies that dominated Donald Trump's campaign for president

Opinion

Editorial

Short-changed?
Updated 24 Nov, 2024

Short-changed?

As nations continue to argue, the international community must recognise that climate finance is not merely about numbers.
Overblown ‘threat’
24 Nov, 2024

Overblown ‘threat’

ON the eve of the PTI’s ‘do or die’ protest in the federal capital, there seemed to be little evidence of the...
Exclusive politics
24 Nov, 2024

Exclusive politics

THERE has been a gradual erasure of the voices of most marginalised groups from Pakistan’s mainstream political...
Counterterrorism plan
Updated 23 Nov, 2024

Counterterrorism plan

Lacunae in our counterterrorism efforts need to be plugged quickly.
Bullish stock market
23 Nov, 2024

Bullish stock market

NORMALLY, stock markets rise gradually. In recent months, however, Pakistan’s stock market has soared to one ...
Political misstep
Updated 23 Nov, 2024

Political misstep

To drag a critical ally like Saudi Arabia into unfounded conspiracies is detrimental to Pakistan’s foreign policy.