Under pressure from Delhi, Mufti government to restore mobile phone services in 2 days

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Jun 2: Under pressure from the Government of India, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP-BJP government has finally come out of the slumber and assured the vendors, the operators and the subscribers that it would ensure restoration of all mobile telephony services in Kashmir valley “within two days”.

“We have devised a strategy and we are sure that all the non-operational BTSs will be back to the business within two days. All the modalities have been finalised in a high level meeting Chaired by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today”, said a well-placed governmental source. He declined to share the details but asserted that all the frozen towers and services recharge outlets would be made operational “within the next two days.

However, sources said that Police protection would be provided to everybody receptive to the offer of “area security” from the government.  As already reported in this newspaper, out of 12,000, as many as 3,000 networking sites of BSNL, Aircel, Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have been rendered non-functional in Kashmir valley since May 23. The threats, and the attacks to enforce the same, have purportedly come out from the militant group ‘Lashkar-e-Islami. While as two persons associated with the mobile telephony operations have been killed, five others have been left injured.

An official release on Tuesday said that a high level meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, reviewed the security and law and order situation. Commissioner-Secretary Home R.K. Goel, DGP K. Rajendra Kumar and the CM’s Principal Secretary B.B. Byas attended the meeting. 

“Taking strong note of the disruption of cellular networks in various parts of the Valley, Mufti Sayeed observed that people cannot be pushed into Stone Age as modern-day functioning in Government, Banking, Tourism, Education, and other vital sectors, in particular, old-age pension and e-transfer of insurance claims and compensation to flood-affected victims are totally dependent on internet connectivity. He said cellular networks have become lifeline as these services are availed by all sections of the society”, said the Press release.

It added: “During the meeting, the Chief Minister directed DGP to take all possible steps to thwart any attempt to disrupt cellular networks in Valley and provide security to mobile tower installations and owners. He said the miscreants cannot be allowed to take law into their own hands and police should deal sternly with such elements. The Chief Minister also directed the DGP to ensure that uninterrupted mobile network connectivity is provided to the people”.

Meanwhile, Pakistan-based militant conglomerate United Jihad Council has claimed, in response to an appeal from the senior Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, that ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ was “a terrorist organisation floated and funded by the Indian intelligence agencies”.  Geelani has expressed satisfaction over the UJC “clarification” and added that Hurriyat had got substantial evidences to establish that the ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ was “the creation of the Indian secret agencies”.

“According to these evidences, it looks that this operation is directly looked over by the Indian home ministry and the state administration and even the state police has been deliberately left ignorant in this regard like in the case of Al-Faran group creation and how this organization at first kidnapped and then killed the five innocent European tourists and the state administration and the police were totally unaware about it. While today’s operation is meant to damage the economic and social setup of the Kashmir, according to the reports received by the Huriyat, the pro-freedom leaders can be the target of this operation,” Geelani said in a statement.

For the first time, Geelani (G) statement has alleged that the creator of the counter-insurgent group Ikhwanul Muslimoon, “who is today at the highest position in the policy makers in New Delhi and is second authority after the Narender Modi” is the architect of the group ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’. It is an insinuation to the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

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