Srinagar: More than four months have passed since mobile internet started being suspended daily in many areas of downtown Srinagar, and people are still without the services.
The areas include many localities of Rainawari, Safa Kadal, Nowhatta and others. The internet is shut at about 3pm in the afternoon and later the services are resumed after 9pm.
“The shutdown is mostly of Airtel and Vodafone (Vi) services. Sometimes Jio services work, but largely they remain affected,” said Ishafaq Ahmad, a resident of Rainawari.
This began to happen in October last year after a spate of killings of persons from minority communities. Police first did mass seizure of two-wheelers in Srinagar, and then shut down the internet during the day hours, twice a day. Later, many areas were taken off the list of the internet shutdown, but still many remain.
The internet services, initially, remained suspended in the area from 7am to 11am and then from 3pm till 10pm on a regular basis. Now they are shut for more than six hours at one stretch.
Officials had admitted that the disruption was happening and said the move had been necessitated by the recent spate of targeted killings in Kashmir.
Rakesh Balwal, SSP Srinagar, told Kashmir Reader on Sunday that he would look into the issue.
“I will check it out,” he said.
The residents of the affected areas have appealed to the administration to stop the cuts for the larger good of the people.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz