After North-South, Telecom services in Srinagar hit

Fayaz Bukhari

Srinagar, June 2: Hours after the Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, reviewed telecom attacks in a high-level meeting of senior civil and police officers here today, the telecom services went further down this evening as internet services of the major cell phone operators was down and the cell phone connectivity was poor.
A senior police officer told Excelsior that there are around 10,000 cell phone towers in Kashmir valley including 100 hub towers. The North and South Kashmir are the worst affected areas and in Srinagar the situation were still comparatively better.
The cell phones in North and South Kashmir were down since yesterday after the attacks on the telecom operators continued and the fresh posters of the Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI) appeared in several parts of Kashmir. Through posters the landlords of the telecom towers have been warned and given a week’s time to shutdown or face consequences.
The telecom franchise shops and re-charge shops in Srinagar were closed today following yesterday’s attack on a telecom tower in old city area of Srinagar.
The security in entire Kashmir valley especially in the sensitive areas has been tightened after the attacks and surfacing of threat posters. Police, Army and CRPF conducted surprise checks at several places along the National Highway in North Kashmir.
In Srinagar, the security around the main telecom offices has been intensified to prevent any attack. The security around the Government operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited in Srinagar was also tightened. The BSNL is the only operator that is still offering better coverage than other private operators.
However, the Government operator may also face problem as the landlords of the BSNL mobile towers have threatened suspension of operations of the towers till June 10 across Kashmir.
“We have decided to close mobile phone towers till June 10 and we will not operate before this date,” a spokesman of the association said.  “We want to give time to the Government to take steps for our safety. We will restart service after we are sure of our safety”, he added.
A BSNL official said:  “We can’t stop them from suspending services. They are facing threats and we can’t force them to continue their operations. They met us and apprised us about their concerns. This is a serious law and order issue and it is the job of Government to deal with it.” He, however, said that the towers installed in the exchange premises would be functional.

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