Srinagar: Mobile phones are likely to buzz once again in the Kashmir Valley soon, but Internet services will be suspended for some more time, official sources here said on Wednesday.
Both mobile and landline phones and Internet services across the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu region were withdrawn as part of the complete communications blockade ordered by the government in J&K ahead of stripping the state of its special status and splitting it into two Union territories on August 5.
Though landline phone services were restored in the Valley a few weeks later, and voice calls on mobile phones started working in a few areas of Kupwara district, Inter-net services have remai-ned suspended across all platforms. Landline and mobile services were made functional in the Jammu region earlier.
The authorities have repeatedly sought to justify the denial of access to the Internet and mobile services in the Valley by asserting such steps were necessary to maintain law and order and prevent violence and pointed to the relatively limited number of incidents of violence compared with previous bouts of unrest.
The communications blockade that has adversely hit the media and medical fraternities, students, travel organisations, trade startups, online services and others evoked severe criticism at home and abroad.
A powerful US congressional committee has said the communications blockade in Kashmir is having a “devastating impact” on the lives and welfare of the people of the region. “India’s communications blackout in Kashmir is having a devastating impact on the lives and welfare of everyday Kashmiri... It’s time for India to lift these restrictions and afford Kashmiris the same rights and privileges as any other Indian citizen,” the US House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a tweet on Monday.
It is now 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.
