A woman in Srinagar (left) uses her mobile phone. An estimated 4m mobile phone connections were restored in India-administered Kashmir.
A woman in Srinagar (left) uses her mobile phone. An estimated 4m mobile phone connections were restored in India-administered Kashmir. © AFP via Getty Images

India has begun a partial rollback of the draconian communications blockade it imposed on its volatile Kashmir region two months ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked its longstanding political autonomy.

At midday on Monday an estimated 4m mobile phone connections sprang to life, however, internet services, and an estimated 2.6m pre-paid mobile phone connections, remain suspended. 

“They have digitally disappeared us,” Khurram Parvez, programme co-ordinator for the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, told the Financial Times minutes after his mobile service phone was restored on Monday. “In today’s world, phones and internet are a basic human right. If you don’t have access to this, how much development can you do?” 

It is two and a half months since New Delhi suspended all telephone and internet services to the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley — a region still smouldering after the violent, Pakistan-backed separatist insurgency that peaked in the 1990s.

Mr Modi’s government had defended the restrictions on telecoms services as necessary to curb protests against controversial constitutional changes introduced in August, which ended Jammu and Kashmir’s special status as an autonomous region of India.

But New Delhi has faced growing criticism — including from abroad — for its continued clampdown, which sat uneasily with its claim that the political reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir was intended to foster greater economic prosperity

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Reflecting international concerns, the US Congress’s House Committee on Foreign Relations last week publicly urged India to ease the restrictions. 

“India’s communication blackout in Kashmir is having a devastating impact on the lives and welfare of everyday Kashmiris,” the committee wrote in a tweet. “It’s time for India to lift these restrictions and afford Kashmiris the same rights and privileges as any other Indian citizen.” 

The political reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir in early August was preceded by the imposition of tough restrictions on a population still scarred by the legacy of a conflict that has claimed more than 45,000 lives since 1989. 

All visitors, including religious pilgrims and holiday makers, were ordered out of the Kashmir Valley, ostensibly because of an elevated terror threat. Telecoms services were suspended. Hundreds of political and civil society leaders, including several former state chief ministers, were arrested. Schools and educational institutions were closed, and ordinary residents told to stay in their homes. 

In mid-August, after the constitutional changes were approved by parliament, New Delhi restored services to the valley’s 50,000 landlines and later reopened primary schools. Last week, Kashmir was formally reopened to tourism and August’s evacuation order rescinded.

Women walk past shuttered shops in Srinagar on Saturday. Many shops only open briefly in the early morning or late at night.
Women walk past shuttered shops in Srinagar on Saturday. Many shops only open briefly in the early morning or late at night. © AP

But school attendance is minimal. Many shops only open briefly in the early morning or late at night, but otherwise remain shuttered in what Kashmiris describe as a “civil curfew” to register discontent. “This is a sign of protest — non-violent protest,” said Mr Parvez. 

New Delhi blames the continuing disruption on threats from separatist militants, and in a giant newspaper advertisement last week urged Kashmiris to resume their normal lives. “Closed shops? No public transport? Who benefits?” the advert, covering the front page of the Greater Kashmir newspaper blared. “This is our home. It is for us to think of its wellbeing and prosperity.” 

Siddiq Wahid, former vice-chancellor of the government-run Islamic University of Science & Technology, said many Kashmiris remain resentful of New Delhi’s actions, and the restoration of telecommunications after two and a half months is immaterial. 

Many of Kashmir’s political leaders remain incarcerated, while others have been freed only after their families have had to sign bonds guaranteeing they will not engage in any political activity or protests. 

“If Delhi expects Kashmiris to either be elated or even mildly excited by this, it’s sadly mistaken,” Mr Wahid said. “This drip-drip-drip incremental restoration has no effect on the public mood  . . . The actions of the government have shown complete contempt for people.”

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