Hilal Mir
05 March 2020•Update: 05 March 2020
SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) -
Kashmiris have been pouring their hearts out online since Wednesday evening when the Indian government lifted a seven-month ban on social media.
"This tweet is brought to you from my desktop, from my office, after seven months," wrote journalist Naveed Iqbal, retweeted by 2,800 people.
Like scores of journalists, Naveed's internet access had been limited to a facility set up by New Delhi in an office in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
Echoing Naveed, journalist Azaan Javaid wrote: "My first tweet from Kashmir outside of govt set media centre & without using a VPN [Virtual Private Networks]. Have nothing exceptional to say except that tweeting so comfortably from home feels unreal."
Stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its political autonomy on Aug. 5 last year, the government of India had shut telephone and internet services, restoring them only gradually. Social media, however, had remained banned.
Further, an unspecified number of social media users, who had circumvented the ban by using VPNs, had been taken into police custody last month for "misuse of social media."
Several media reports said the government spent millions of rupees on building firewalls to keep social media off-limits.
"[…]arrogance driven decisions. Meanwhile, your firewall is as weak as your stand on Kashmir," wrote Junaid Kathjoo on Facebook.
Faysal, a Kashmiri user based in Turkey, wrote: "The patience and perseverance of Kashmiris can be gauged by the consistent attempts to Skype video call overseas at 2am. How can you possibly expect them to give up, when all their lives, they've been trained to not give up?"
As many as 20,000 landlines in Kashmir are yet to have broadband connectivity restored. Media reports suggested that until a social media firewall had been installed, the service would remain suspended.
Indian online newspaper The Print reported on March 3 that the Kashmiri authorities engaged U.S.-based multinational software firm Cisco systems to prevent fixed-line internet users from accessing social media websites.
But, quoting a Cisco spokesperson, Indian daily The Hindu said the firm denied involvement in restricting access to social media.
"We do not customize our products in any way to enable censorship," the spokesperson reportedly said.
Kashmir is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.
Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.
Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.
