No pre-paid mobiles for now, says J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday ruled out possibility of restoration of pre-paid mobile or internet services in Kashmir Valley in near future.

Governor Satya Pal Malik was quoted as saying “There isn’t a plan to resume pre-paid mobile service since Pakistani nationals would misuse this. We will start internet services only when situation improves.”

Mobile — both pre-paid and post-paid, landline phone and internet services were snapped in J&K on the night of August 4 as part of a complete communication blackout ordered ahead of the Centre’s stripping the state of its special status and splitting it into two Union territories.

However, landline phone services were restored, first in Jammu and then in the Valley, last month. Earlier, voice calls on mobile phones had started working in a few areas of Valley’s frontier district of Kupwara from August 17.

Also the mobile internet service made available to subscribers in Jammu on August 18 but these were withdrawn again the next day allegedly after the facility was “misused” by some people, mainly through social media.

However, broadband services on fixed landline phones began working in Jammu region again some time ago.

Post-paid mobile phone service was made operational also in the Valley from October 14. However, the government ordered withdrawal of Short Messaging Service (SMS) facility on these within three hours without giving any reason for it. The internet services have remained suspended across all platforms in the Valley. 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 law and order and prevent violence and pointed to the relatively limited number of incidents of violence compared with previous bouts of unrest. The Governor had said on Monday, “For us, the life of a Kashmiri was important and not telephone. People were living without telephones earlier also.”

The Governor on Friday also said that the killing of an apple buyer from Punjab, truck driver from Rajasthan and brick kiln worker from Chhattisgarh by suspected militants in southern Shopian and Pulwama districts over past few days was of a matter of grave concern.

Claiming Pakistan’s hand in these killings, he said, “This is happening on Pakistan’s directions to create disturbance in the state. We will not allow this to happen.”