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The restrictions were withdrawn after Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah termed the ban “harassment.”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The ban on pre-paid phones was revoked in January this year after protests.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.
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