India on Friday banned residents in insurgency-hit Kashmir from sending text messages, only to revoke the edict hours later after it angered phone users and the region’s chief minister.
In an unexpected announcement, India’s telecommunications and information technology ministries banned subscribers with monthly contracts from sending messages, while pre-paid mobile users were to be limited to 10 a day.
The ban was to come into effect from midnight Saturday but hours later a government statement said it had “decided to withdraw its order of April 16, 2010, imposing restrictions on SMS services.”
There was no explanation for the move to ban the service beyond the assertion that it was “in the interest of the national security.”
In October last year, all pre-paid phones were banned after reports that they were being used by militants, who have waged a 20-year fight against Indian rule and the thousands of security forces in the Himalayan region.
The restrictions were withdrawn after Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah termed the ban “harassment.”
“An officer sitting in the department of telecommunications or home ministry cannot decide what is right or what is wrong for the people of my state,” Abdullah told the Press Trust of India news agency.
He said the state government was attempting to bridge the gap between the unpopular government in New Delhi and Kashmiris and such moves as restricting SMSs were “dampeners.”
“This harassment needs to be put to an end once and for all,” he said.
Mobile phones were launched in Kashmir only in 2003 after security agencies gave the go-ahead.
The ban on pre-paid phones was revoked in January this year after protests. The ban affected 3.8 million users in Kashmir.
The sending of bulk text messages through online portals was also banned under the new rules.
Abdullah admitted the state government had asked for a ban on sending bulk texts, “which we believe is being used to spread rumors and gossip.”
“This request has not been understood properly,” he said.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, where there has been a sharp decline in violence since India and Pakistan started a peace process in 2004.
Over the past two years, however, separatist politicians have been leading frequent anti-India protests.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
RSS