SRINAGAR, India (AP) – India has put an end to an 18-month ban on high-speed internet services on mobile devices in Kashmir, where opposition to New Delhi has deepened after revoking the region’s semi-autonomy.
The order late on Friday lifted the ban on 4G mobile data services. However, the order issued by the region’s interior secretary, Shaleen Kabra, called on police officers to “closely monitor the impact of lifting the restrictions”.
A general ban on the Internet, the longest in a democracy that rights activists call “digital apartheid” and “collective punishment” came into force in August 2019, when India removed Kashmir from its special and state status, which granted residents special rights over land ownership and jobs. The region was also divided into two federally governed territories.
The move was accompanied by a reduction in security and a total disruption of communications that left hundreds of thousands out of jobs, already affected the weak health care system and disrupted school and university education by millions. On Monday, India gradually eased some of the restrictions, including partial internet connectivity.
In January last year, authorities allowed more than 12 million people in India-controlled territory to access government-approved websites through low-speed connections..
Two months later, authorities lifted the ban on social media and restored full internet connectivity but not high speed internet. In August, 4G services were allowed in two of the region’s 20 districts.
Officials said the ban on the Internet was aimed at removing protests and anti-India attacks by rebels who had been fighting for decades for the region’s independence or union with Pakistan, which administers another part of Kashmir. Both countries claim the territory without access to the sea in its entirety.
Officials also argued that such security measures were needed to better integrate the region with India, encourage greater economic development and stop threats from “anti-national elements” and Pakistan.
However, many Kashmiri view the movement as part of the beginning of colonialist colonialism aimed at engineering demographic change. in the only Muslim-majority region of India.
Digital rights activists have consistently denounced Internet restrictions and said they represent a new level of government control over information.. They were also criticized by parliamentarians in Europe and the United States, who called on the government to end the borders.
Omar Abdullah, the former elected official of the region, who was imprisoned for several months in 2019, welcomed the restoration of the internet. “Better late than never,” he wrote on Twitter.
Others have criticized such voices, saying the internet is one of the basic rights.
“I actually see some trying to thank government officials for restoring 4G,” Kashmir Times executive editor Anuradha Bhasin said in a tweet. “It simply came to our notice then. We should demand compensation for our shortcomings and losses. ”
India often captures mobile internet services in parts of the region as a tactic during counter-insurgency operations and anti-India protests.
According to the Top10VPN digital research and privacy group in London, India ranked in the top of internet shutdowns in 2020.
In its January report, the group said Internet closures in 2020 caused a loss of $ 4.01 billion globally, with India being the hardest hit, while suffering a loss of $ 2.8 billion. .
Most internet outages in India have been implemented in Kashmir. But they also used the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi elsewhere.
Authorities cut off the internet on protest sites outside New Delhi, where tens of thousands of farmers over two months have camped against new agricultural laws. The move attracted global attention after pop star Rihanna On Tuesday, he posted on Twitter a link to a CNN news report about India blocking internet services on protest sites. He angered government ministers and Indian celebrities, who urged people to come together and denounce outsiders trying to break into the country.