Srinagar: At the time when people of the valley are facing enormous hardships from last few days due to the non availability of internet services, authorities on Thursday during republic day function blocked mobile services for several hours.
Services of BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Indicom, Aircel, Idea and Reliance were jammed from 9 am to 12pm in entire J&K today and restored only in the afternoon after the official functions ended in the city and district headquarters. However, landline phones continued their functioning as usual in Jammu and Kashmir.
Cell phones across the valley fell silent today started this morning. It has become a regular practice in Kashmir to jam the mobile telephony during Republic Day and Independence Day functions, said local resident of Srinagar city.
A senior Police officer said that militants have used mobile phones in the past to trigger remote controlled explosive devices in Kashmir so to stop any untoward incident authorities jammed mobile telephone.
A senior cabinet Minster wished not to be named said that this has been part of the security measure for Independence Day celebrations after militants used a cellular phone to trigger an IED blast close to Bakshi stadium in 2005. (KNS)