Indian authorities on Saturday re
stored internet
in Indian Kashmir after a five-and-a half-month blackout but maintained a block on social media sites. Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s government imposed a communications blackout in early August when it stripped the portion of Kashmir it controls — the country’s only Muslim-majority region — of its partial autonomy. India also imposed a curfew, se
nt in tens of thousands of extra troops and detained dozens of Kashmiri political leaders and others, many of whom remain in detention, drawing criticism abroad. Internet access was re
stored Saturday but only to 301 government-approved websites that include international news publications and platforms such as
Netflix and Amazon. Mobile phone data access was also re
stored, although it was limited t
o slower second-generation (2G) connections. “It’s good some internet access has been re
stored but it’s s
o slow I’m hardly able to access anything and social media is also off-limits,” Raashid Ahmad, a university student, told AFP. Azhar Hussain, a local businessman, also complained about the internet speed being “painfully slow”. India is the world leader in cutting internet services, activists say, and access was also temporarily suspended in other parts of the country during recent protests against a new citizenship law. Since August freedom of moveme
nt in heavily-militarized Kashmir has been gradually re
stored as has cellphone coverage, but apart from at a handful of locations, there has been no regular internet access.
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