SMS blocked in Kashmir soon after mobile phones resume

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, October 15

SMS services were blocked in Kashmir soon after mobile phones were resumed two months after remaining suspended since August 5 when Article 370 was abrogated.

Mobile phones in Kashmir buzzed back to life on Monday, breaking the silence of a 72-day communication clampdown and reconnecting 40 lakh post-paid subscribers to the country, the Valley and their neighbourhoods, but without any internet facilities.

The resumption of the service was only on post-paid connections and only for voice calls and SMS. But the SMS were banned later in the evening.

"SMS services were stopped last evening as a precautionary measure," said an official.

Two terrorists, including a suspected Pakistani national, shot dead the driver of a Rajasthan truck and assaulted an orchard owner in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir around 8 pm on Monday.

Police said the deceased was identified as Sharief Khan and the terrorists carried out the attack in Shirmal village in desperation as fruit transportation was picking up in the Valley.

Over 25 lakh prepaid mobile phones and other internet services, including WhatsApp, remain deactivated for now.

Governor Satya Pal Malik said in Kathua, Jammu, that internet services would be resumed very soon, but officials in the security establishment maintained the process might take up to two months.

On August 17, partial fixed line telephony was resumed in the Valley. On September 4, nearly 50,000 landlines were declared operational.

In Jammu, communication was restored within days of the blockade and mobile internet was started around mid-August. However, after its misuse, internet facility on cell phones was snapped on August 18.