India restoring fast mobile internet in IIOJK after 18 months

4G mobile internet services being restored in Occupied Kashmir, says local administration


Reuters February 06, 2021
A Kashmiri woman holds a girl as they watch a protest after a gun battle between freedom fighters and Indian security forces in Srinagar September 17, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

SRINAGAR:

India said on Friday it was restoring high-speed mobile internet in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) for the first time since August 2019, when the government withdrew the special rights of the restive Muslim-majority region.

IIOJK was India’s only Muslim-majority state before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government split it into two, including an enclave with many Buddhists, and took direct control of both.

“4G mobile internet services being restored in entire J&K,” local administration spokesman Rohit Kansal said on Twitter.

India broke up Occupied Kashmir in mid-2019 by sending additional troops mainly to the Kashmir Valley, and detaining political leaders to crack down on dissent in the occupied region where India has been fighting a freedom movement for decades.

One of those detained and released politicians, former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, tweeted his happiness at the New Delhi government’s move on the internet.

“4G Mubarak!” he said, using an Urdu word for congratulations.

“For the first time since Aug 2019, all of J&K will have 4G mobile data. Better late than never”.

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