Prepaid mobile internet services in Kashmir to finally be restored

The mobile telephony and internet services were banned across Kashmir by official authorities back in July, 2016. The ban continued following a mass unrest after the killing of Hizb Commander Burhan Wani. While the government restored the services of prepaid and postpaid mobile phones — the ban on internet services continued.

“There is no timeline for resuming the prepaid internet service in the valley. We are watching the situation. When we get proper situation for resuming the service, we will resume it. As of now, we don’t have any plan of restoring the service,” Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Javid Mujtaba Geelani was reported as saying by the Kashmir Monitor on December 29, 2016.

However, it appears that the authorities have finally decided to lift the ban. News agency New Kerala reports that Kashmir Police has decided to restore the prepaid mobile internet services in Kashmir on 30 January, 2017.

Many students in Kashmir were affected due to the ban. The Kashmir Monitor report stated that since educational institutions remained closed during the unrest, students couldn’t complete their syllabus and the one way of taking classes or getting access to learning material was through the internet. However, the absence of internet eliminated that option as well.