E-Paper
With limited access to internet, Kashmiri families divided by LoC unable to contact each other
Limited access to the internet has left families on both sides of the border divided and out of communication due to low-speed 2G internet services in the Indian administered part of Kashmir
It has been more than eight months now since high-speed internet was suspended in Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370, leaving people living on both sides of Line of Control (LoC) unable to contact each other.
Sitara Begum,80, a resident of Garkote village in Uri said she has not been able to talk to her four cousin brothers settled in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). “Earlier, our children used to call them on WhatsApp, but now it has been eight months that we haven’t contacted each other,” she said.
Iqbal Banday, a government employee in Uri whose relatives reside on the other side of the border, said, “We fear about the well-being of our loved ones across the LoC, as there is no medium to reach out to them”.
Limited access to the internet has left families on both sides of the border divided and out of communication due to low-speed 2G internet services in the Indian administered part of Kashmir
Earlier this year, the government has decided to restore the facility with limited access to social media and internet-based messaging services like WhatsApp.
“WhatsApp was cheapest and easiest medium to reach out to our relatives on the other side of the border, but too has been snatched from us,” said Javaid Ahmad Budoo, a resident of Uri.
Yasmeena Mir, 57, a resident of Muzaffarabad in PoK said her husband’s family is settled in Uri. “It has been a long time now that we didn’t talk. One can imagine our situation,” she said adding the government of India must restore high Internet services in the valley.
The high-speed internet services were suspended in the valley on August 5 last year, following the abrogation of Article 370. However, 2G mobile internet and low-speed broadband were also restored last month with limited access to social media.
The people have also demanded that the government must restore the cross-LoC bus service which was shut a year ago.
The Karavan-e-Aman (peace bus) between Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service was started on April 7, 2005, on fortnightly basis as a confidence-building measure between India and Pakistan when the two countries were engaged in a composite dialogue.
The cross-LoC bus service was suspended in March last year following the Pulwama terror attack on February 14.
