Under international pressure, India announces to restore mobile service in IOK

HELD SRINAGAR: Under international pressure, the Indian government said on Saturday it would unblock most mobile telephone lines in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) in a major easing of a two-month-old security clampdown since cancelling the region's autonomy, but a grenade attack in the main city highlighted tensions over New Delhi's actions.

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Police said a grenade was thrown in a market area near the old town in Srinagar injuring seven people. Most stores, schools and businesses across IOK have been closed since the Hindu nationalist government brought the region under tighter central control on August 5.

Government spokesman Rohit Kansal told a press conference in Srinagar, just before the grenade blast, that authorities had decided to end the phone blockade after a security review in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region. All phones linked to a monthly subscription "will stand restored and be functional from noon on Monday (tomorrow)," he said, adding that the measure would apply to all of IOK.

The New Delhi government imposed a mobile phone and internet blackout as part of a huge security clampdown to back its annulment of IOK’s constitutionally guaranteed autonomy. Tens of thousands of extra troops were also sent in an operation that critics said virtually cut off IOK from the outside world.

Kansal claimed that restrictions on public movement had been lifted in "99 percent" of IOK but gave no indication on whether internet services would also be restored. India on Thursday lifted restrictions on tourists travelling to the region and released three politicians among hundreds of people detained after August 5. Kansal said all those detained would be released gradually after their cases are reviewed.

The leader of the opposition Congress party in the region, GA Mir was sceptical of the government’s announcement.

"We have been hearing for days that they would restore mobile phones. So unless they actually do this on Monday, this is just another one of their announcements," he told AFP. He also questioned the move to lift restrictions for tourists, when authorities have been saying throughout the clampdown that "life is normal" in IOK. "The government claims not a single bullet was fired. Then what was the panic situation that tourists were forced to leave in the first place?" Mir said. Iltija Mufti, a daughter of IOK former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, one of the politicians in detention, said international pressure has forced the government´s hand but the response was "very little, very late."

Iltija Mufti said that without internet people could not pay their mobile phone bills, "so what´s the point of opening mobile lines? Will they get a service."