Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR: Mobile internet services have been restored in Kashmir valley just before Thursday midnight, over six hours after they were suspended following civilian killings in Jammu region.
The Border Security Force fired indiscriminately at a group of Muslim demonstrators protesting sacrilege of the holy Quran in Ramban district by BSF soldiers, a charge which they deny.
Seven protesters are reported killed, although there has been no word on casualties by the police so far.
The killings caused massive outrage in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley.
Protests erupted immediately as news spread in the capital Srinagar, nearly 130 kms north of the incident site.
Customer care executives of service provider Airtel told FreePress that they had suspended the sim card-based internet on orders from the authorities who feared violent protests and more deaths.
This is the third time this year that mobile internet services have been barred in Kashmir.
They remained suspended for days together following the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in February and later again when a young man Tahir Sofi was killed by the army in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district in March.
The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah then justified the ban on mobile internet services saying the “restrictions were necessary”.
“Main reason to restrict the mobile services is they are the only source to spread rumours,” he had said.
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