[Mobile phones sprang to life across the Kashmir Valley after more than two months of silence as Indian authorities removed a key element of their clampdown on the region’s 7 million people.]
By Joanna Slater and Niha Masih
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People
use cellphones in Srinagar on Monday after Indian authorities restored
service.
(Farooq Khan/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
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NEW
DELHI — Just before noon on
Monday, Athar Rather’s phone rang in New Delhi. On the other end was a voice he
hadn’t heard in weeks: his younger sister Rizwana in Kashmir. The siblings
choked back tears, overcome by the simple act of being able to reach each
other.
Mobile phones sprang to life across the
Kashmir Valley after more than two months of silence as Indian authorities
removed a key element of their clampdown on the region’s 7 million people.
Around noon local time, Kashmiris who have
monthly cellphone plans — but not those with prepaid connections — discovered
they were again able to communicate with friends, relatives and colleagues.
Parents called their children studying in other parts of India. Business
executives called their customers. Anyone who could make a call made one — or
dozens.
Feroz Khan, a dealer in shawls and
handicrafts, sat outside his shop in downtown Srinagar and spent an hour
calling each of his clients in different cities. “It is like telling them that
we, too, exist,” he said, a smile of relief on his face. “It is unimaginable
for people living outside Kashmir to understand how we managed to live without
communication for 70 days.”
The reprieve comes at a bleak time for most
Kashmiris. The shutdown in cellular phone service was part of an unprecedented
crackdown tied to India’s decision on Aug. 5 to strip Kashmir of its autonomy
and statehood.
Anticipating large and potentially violent
protests in response to its move, India blocked all communications, shut down
Internet service and placed severe restrictions on movement. Authorities
detained thousands of people, including children, and arrested nearly all of
the state’s political leadership. The restrictions affected emergency medical
care. Security forces faced allegations of torture.
In recent weeks, India has eased some
restrictions, restoring landline service and permitting people to move around
mostly unhindered. But Internet access remains cut off and dozens of
high-profile politicians are still in detention. Shops are shuttered except for
a few hours a day, out of anger at India’s decision and, in some cases, fear of
reprisals by militants. Schools are largely empty of students.
International human rights groups and a
growing number of U.S. lawmakers have criticized India’s crackdown in Kashmir.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared that the revocation of
Kashmir’s autonomy represented a “new dawn” for the Muslim-majority region,
which has been home to an anti-India insurgency for three decades. He vowed to
make a “paradise” in Kashmir, but it remains unclear how the government plans
to achieve such a goal.
On Monday, after two months of being cut off
from modern communications, many Kashmiris rushed to make calls to people
across the country. There are about 6 million mobile phone connections overall
in the Kashmir Valley, said a senior official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter. He could not
provide a figure for the different types of mobile plans.
In Kashmir, the immediate sense of relief was
coupled with sadness and frustration. The past two months have taken their
toll: Rather, who is 29-year old journalist in Delhi, learned only belatedly
that his uncle had died in September. By the time word reached him, the funeral
was already over. His mother, a cancer survivor, missed her checkups at the hospital,
because of a lack of public transportation. Rather said he experienced panic
attacks due to not being able to reach his relatives.
“It’s been very exhausting,” he said, “not
being able to speak to my family when we needed each other the most.”
Authorities in Kashmir have not said when
they will restore Internet service, nor have they said when mainstream
politicians — some of whom are being held under a stringent anti-terrorism
statute — will be freed. Politicians are reportedly being asked to sign a bond
pledging to maintain “peace” and “good behavior” as a condition of their
release.
The partial resumption of cellphone service
is a “halfhearted measure” taken in response to international pressure, said
Iltija Mufti, the daughter of Mehbooba Mufti, the former chief minister of the
state of Jammu and Kashmir. Her mother has been held incommunicado in solitary
detention since Aug. 5. In September, India’s Supreme Court allowed her to meet
her mother.
“Our thoughts and words have been put under
curfew,” Iltija Mufti said. “Are we supposed to celebrate phones working now?”
Experts said that the return of mobile phone
service represented a test of the public mood in Kashmir. If violent protests
emerge or a fresh attack by militants takes place, the restrictions could
return. “If there is an abrupt escalation, there will be an equally abrupt
clampdown again,” said Ajai Sahni, a terrorism expert and executive director of
the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi. “The government has
communicated a very clear message of the extent to which it is willing to go.”
Khan, the dealer in shawls and handicrafts,
said that it has been an ordeal to keep his business afloat for the past two
months. “It would have been great if the authorities resumed the Internet as
well,” he said, his relief tempered by the knowledge that the curbs on
communication could be reinstated. “We are happy, but I am not sure how long
this joy will last.”
Shams Irfan in Srinagar contributed to
this report.
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