Kashmir Valley may have mobiles sans net

Srinagar: The mobile phones may buzz again in Kashmir Valley soon. However, the internet services will remain suspended for some more time, official sources here said on Wednesday.

It is learnt that the government has decided to ask the service providers to restore mobile phone connectivity across the Valley in a phased manner.  “The restoration of mobile phone services may start soon. However, the internet services will remain suspended for some more time,” said a senior police official who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity.  

Both mobile and landline phone and internet services across Kashmir Valley and Jammu region were withdrawn as part of complete communication blockade ordered by the government in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of stripping the state of its special status and splitting it into two Union territories on August 5.

Though the landline phone services were restored in the Valley few weeks later and also voice calls on mobile phones started working in a few areas of frontier district of Kupwara, internet services have remained suspended across all platforms.

The landline and mobile phone services were made functional also in Jammu region.

The authorities have repeatedly sought to justify the denial of access to internet and mobile phone services in the Valley by asserting that such steps were necessary to maintain order and prevent violence and pointed to the relatively limited number of incidents of violence compared with previous bouts of unrest.

The communication blockade which has had adversely affected the media and medical fraternities, students, travel organisations, trade startups, online services and others evoked severe criticism at home and abroad.