One-and-A-half years after curtailing Internet services in Jammu and Kashmir, the government on Friday ordered the restoration of 4G mobile Internet in all of the Union Territory.
“4G mobile internet services being restored in entire J&K,” Jammu and Kashmir administration spokesperson Rohit Kansal posted on Twitter on Friday evening. Sources in the government said 4G mobile Internet might return by midnight.
4G mobile internet services being restored in entire J&K @diprjk
— Rohit Kansal (@kansalrohit69) February 5, 2021
The decision comes as the government faces increasing criticism at home and internationally for imposing curbs on the Internet, widely seen as a core human right.
The official order issued by Principal Secretary to the J&K government Shaleen Kabra said the restrictions were being revoked “except to the extent that the pre-paid SIM card holders shall be provided access to the Internet connectivity only after verification as per the norms applicable for post-paid connections”.
Mobile Internet services were suspended in Jammu and Kashmir on August 4, 2019, the day before the Centre announced the decision to strip the erstwhile state of its special status and bifurcate it into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Internet services had been suspended on ground of anticipated law and order situations as a result of the decisions, and intelligence inputs about possible attacks by terrorists infiltrating from across the border.
4G Internet services on mobile were restored in two of the 20 districts – Udhampur in Jammu and Ganderbal in Kashmir – on August 16 last year on a “trial basis”. Elsewhere in the UT, people had only 2G Internet services on mobile.
Sources said a high-level committee headed by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla recently took the decision to restore services based on reports by security agencies that restoration of 4G mobile Internet services were not likely to cause any major security problem in the Union Territory.❐
