Police start restoring mobile networks in Kashmir

The police, with support of the Indian Army and the CRPF, are restoring mobile towers in south Kashmir and north Kashmir and most of mobile towers are likely to be restored by evening.

“We are restoring network services in the Kashmir Valley after facing militant threats to shut down the network. Our teams are on network sites to restoring the service," a telecom official told IBNS.

On May 25, militants strike BSNL showroom in Sopore town and killed one employee of BSNL while two others seriously injured, while on May 27 a mobile tower owner was killed by unidentified gunmen in north Kashmir.

The militants had issued several warning to the owners of the franchise offices of various telecommunication companies, including BSNL, asking them to shut down their business in and around Sopore.

The state police have also deployed its men to protect the towers in vulnerable areas after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed directed it to ensure security for the cellular towers and those manning them.

The state police have assured the Union Home Ministry that if needed then the police will run the vulnerable towers.

“Police are restoring mobile network services in north Kashmir which was shut down after the killing of two persons and repeated threat posters pasted by Lashar-i-islam”, Deputy Inspector General Police of North Kashmir told IBNS.

He said 609 mobile towers, out of 1,058 shut down after militant threats, have started functioning again in the worst affected Sopore area after security and assurance grant to employees of cellular companies and mobile tower owners.

The threat was made "after equipment purportedly installed by terrorists on Badami Bagh in Sopore of Noth Kashmir cell phone tower was removed".

Moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has condemned the attacks while Hardline Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Geelani described the attackers as “enemies of people and their struggle”.