A S H M I R ’

K S
NI T E R N ET
IS E G E

an ongoing assault on digital rights

JAMMU KASHMIR COALITION OF CIVIL SOCIETY

PUBLISHED AUGUST 2020
summary
Kashmir’s Internet Siege provides an overview of the harms, costs and consequences of the
digital siege in Jammu & Kashmir, from August 2019 to the publication of this report in August
2020. We examine the shutdown and network disruptions through a broad-based and multi-
dimensional human rights framework that sees internet access as vital in the contemporary world.

India leads the world in ordering internet shutdowns, and both in terms of frequency and duration,
Jammu & Kashmir accounts for more than two-thirds of the Indian shutdowns ordered. Mobile
internet data speed in Kashmir is currently restricted to 2G internet (250kbps). Even this access
remains extremely precarious as localized shutdowns of the internet in specific districts or areas, often
accompanied by mobile phone disruptions, are commonplace, sometimes lasting for upto a week.

In this report we contextualise the digital siege in light of long standing, widespread and
systematic patterns of rights violations in Kashmir. Digital sieges are a technique of political
repression in Kashmir, and a severe impediment to the enjoyment of internationally and
constitutionally guaranteed civil, political and socio-economic rights. They curtail circulation of
news and information, restrict social and emergency communications, and silence and criminalise
all forms of political interactions and mobilisations as “militancy related” “terrorist activity” and
threats to “national security”.

The Background to the report discusses the legal framework and judicial precedents relating
to the denial of digital rights in Kashmir, premised on militarised national security policies and
practices. Internet shutdowns and restrictions in Kashmir also raise important questions of
collective punishment in the context of an ongoing armed conflict, where the framework of
international humanitarian laws applies. We argue that under humanitarian law prolonged and
blanket internet disruptions are similar to other kinds of disproportionate and impermissible
forms of targeting or blockading of essential civilian infrastructure or services. The digital siege is
constituted by varied forms and phases of network disruptions and shutdowns.

This report looks at these disruptions through the lens of various international human right norms.
Livelihood consequences of the shutdown of August 2019 were severe, and losses suffered by
various businesses during the first five months alone were estimated at Rs 178.78 billion, with
more than 500,000 people having lost their jobs in the valley in the period1.
Health indices showed a marked decline, with the months of June-August 2019 showing numbers
of hospital visits dropping by upto 38%.
Education suffered a major setback, and in August 2020 students enrolled in Kashmir’s 30,000
schools and 400 institutes of higher education marked the first anniversary of the internet
shutdown as a full year without attending school, or college or university.
Justice saw systemic delays further compounded by ineffective online hearings. Amidst
the internet and telecommunications blackout, more than 6000 detentions and over 600
‘administrative’ detentions took place around August 5th 2019. Of habeas corpus petitions filed for
the release of illegal detainees during the period, 99% remain pending2.
Press freedoms and the right to freedom of speech, expression and social participation suffered
from the direct impact and chilling effects of online surveillance, profiling and criminal sanctions, with
police complaints registered against working journalists and over 200 social media and VPN users.

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 This report unpacks the contexts of these disturbing facts, situating them in the light of
fundamental human rights to livelihood, health, education, access to justice, freedom of press,
free speech and expression, and social and cultural participation. The Covid-19 pandemic and the
militarised lockdown in Kashmir re-instituted severe restrictions of mobility and public gatherings,
compounding and complicating public health and other challenges of the network disruption.
Despite widespread calls to restore full internet connectivity, and constitutional litigation before the
Indian Supreme Court, the state continues to justify the throttling of internet speeds on grounds of
national sovereignty, dismissing the concerns of international and Indian civil society actors.

Through the chapters we focus on the layered impact of the pandemic and trace the consequences
for differently located Kashmiris, including students, health workers, and journalists.
Speaking with five individuals provides qualitative insights that animate and punctuate
the narrative, and give us a glimpse into ordinary lives lived, and opportunities lost, amidst
these crippling restrictions. Through a granular and detailed Timeline we present a temporal
visualisation of the fluidity and complexity of the digital siege, as it unfolded through the first 300
days, across different regional geographies within Jammu & Kashmir.

Taken as a whole, Kashmir’s Internet Siege argues that the multi-faceted and targeted denial of
digital rights is a systemic form of discrimination, digital repression and collective punishment
of the region’s residents, particularly in light of India’s long history of political repression and
atrocities. The promise of lasting peace, freedom and justice for the people of Jammu & Kashmir is
inextricably tied to digital and human rights in the region.

1 Kashmir Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) estimates

2 Jammu & Kashmir Bar Association estimates

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background
As this report is being written, Jammu & Kashmir is under lockdown because of the Covid-19
pandemic. Yet, unlike the rest of the world, currently 12.5 million people in the region can barely
video call their friends or family, attend online classes, webinars or conferences, use apps to have
their groceries or medicines delivered, entertain themselves by streaming a film, or download the
latest World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations and health guidelines. For the Internet
in Kashmir has been restricted by the government, and mobile internet bandwidth is officially
throttled to 2G levels1 (upto 250 kbps), a speed which does not allow full functionality for most
web sites and web based applications. This present situation of highly restricted internet speeds is
only the latest development in an on-going situation which saw a complete internet shutdown2 as
well as the blocking of all communications technologies (including voice calling on fixed line and
mobile phones). These had been instituted as a “precautionary” security measure in the run-up to
the political changes that were initiated in Jammu & Kashmir on August 5th 2019.

This report provides an overview of the harms, costs and consequences of the digital siege in
Jammu & Kashmir, from August 2019 to the publication of this report in August 2020. We examine
the disruption of network connectivity through a broad-based and multi-dimensional human
rights framework that sees internet access as vital to life in the contemporary world. The Internet
and social media play an essential role in democratizing the public sphere, facilitating social
and economic engagement, mobility and communications, removing barriers to knowledge and
information, all while creating an important avenue for solidarity and organizing.

This report moves beyond the most often cited direct impact of network disruptions on political
and economic freedoms of speech and association, business and trade. We include studies of
the effect on the rights to health, education, and livelihood and examine the effects of network
disruptions on access to justice and individual and collective security. We also consider the
damage done to social and cultural life, which is the basis of the economy and community. In
doing so we hope Kashmir’s Internet Siege provides a more integrated, cross-sectoral, and wide
ranging view of the devastating and all-encompassing impact of the government’s denial of
communications and access to the internet (and the throttling of internet speeds once access is
restored). Individual chapters that contextualise the situation in Kashmir in the light of particular
human rights standards, and a detailed timeline, are interwoven with brief conversations that
highlight the intersecting nature of the discrimination and suffering caused. The report distills the
voices and experiences of the siege from a multiplicity of media accounts and published sources,
as an all India Covid 19 lockdown placed severe constraints on our ability to undertake field visits,
carry out primary research, and conduct face-to-face interviews.

context of the siege

On August 5th 2019, Indian parliament amended Article 370 of the Indian Constitution,
which, based on the Instrument of Accession signed by the Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir,
was formulated to enable Jammu & Kashmir a semi-autonomous ‘special status’ and its own
Constitution. The Indian parliament also approved the partition of the State of Jammu & Kashmir
into two directly administered Union Territories - Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh. While rumours

1 Bandwidth throttling refers to the intentional slowing down of an internet service or a type of internet traffic by an Internet Service Provider.
https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/09/10/new-research-shows-your-internet-provider-is-in-control
2 Access Now defines an Internet Shutdown as an “intentional disruption of internet or electronic communications, rendering them inaccessible or effectively unusable, for a specific population or
within a location, often to exert control over the flow of information.”

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 had been circulating during the week previous to this momentous decision about the impending
imposition of security restrictions, and the possible detention of high profile Kashmiri politicians,
no one was prepared for the siege that followed. Through the last year, amidst restrictions
on the internet that make it difficult to access information—including government
notifications—the people of Jammu & Kashmir have been subject to further far
reaching and undemocratic changes to laws relating to land and property ownership,
governance and permanent residency rights. These legal changes have destroyed every
remaining trace of Kashmir’s constitutional autonomy or resource sovereignty, both de
jure and de facto.

Kashmiris are long accustomed to such ‘sieges’3, which feature highly intrusive
security measures that include blockading of arterial roads and entry and exits to the
Kashmir valley, curfew-like restrictions on mobility, mass preventive detentions, and
telecommunication and internet blackouts. However this time around the intensity of
measures underway, including large scale troop movements, the mass evacuations
of tourists, of non-Kashmiri students, and of Hindu pilgrims on the Amarnath
Yatra pilgrimage, all ostensibly due to a “terrorist” threat, created widespread and
unprecedented panic. Finally around 9 pm on August 4th 2019, the government
suspended all phone lines as well as the Internet. Although the phone lines were
gradually restored a month later, followed by broadband internet and the mobile
internet, even a year later internet data speed continues to remain throttled on mobile
connections throughout Jammu & Kashmir.

According to statistics published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI,

20194) undivided Jammu & Kashmir had a total of 11.44 million telecommunications
subscribers (both phones and internet) and 6.60 million internet subscribers (more
than double of 3.65 million subscribers in 2014.) Broadband internet subscribers

numbered 5.90 million (up from only 0.53 million in 2014) while wireless internet subscription
(referred to as mobile internet) was at 6.49 million. Unsurprisingly, the internet shutdown of
August 2019 had an enormous impact on digital access and teledensity in the region. New Indian
Express5 reported that “wireless subscription data released by TRAI shows that the region also
recorded a sharp dive in its overall mobile subscriber base during August and September [2019],
shedding a net 2.58 lakh [258,000] users.” The contraction in mobile user base in the same period
saw the region record a net decline of 115,000 wireless subscribers during the period, compared
to a net addition of 144,000 mobile connections during the previous quarter ended June 30, 2019.
A loss of 1.4 million telecom subscribers and a negative growth of 12.59% of Kashmir’s telecom
sector were recorded in the first quarter of 2020, the Andalou Agency6 reported.

a history of blockades
Indian Administered Kashmir, like the other parts of the erstwhile kingdom of Jammu & Kashmir,
has been disputed territory ever since the independence of Pakistan and India in 19477. It has
been home to a longstanding movement for self-determination, and for thirty years, witness to an
armed rebellion. The government’s response has been heavy-handed and destructive; amongst
other systemic and widespread patterns of human rights violations, documented in landmark
reports by the United Nations in 20188 and 20199, Kashmir has witnessed the ubiquitous use of

3 https://factordaily.com/internet-ban-kashmir-affects-normal-life
4 https://dot.gov.in/sites/default/files/Telecom%20Statistics%20India-2019.pdf?download=1
5 https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2019/nov/26/jk-lockdown-hits-telecom-companies-revenue-for-second-quarter-trai-data-2067191.html
6 https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/14m-people-give-up-phones-in-indian-kashmir/1737126
7 Indian Administered Kashmir, comprises the southern and southeastern portions of the former princely state of Jammu & Kashmir. It comprises three administrative divisions Jammu, Kashmir
and Ladakh, which previously constituted the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. Since August 5th 2019 it has been partitioned into two directly ruled Union Territories of “Jammu & Kashmir” and
“Ladakh”. The northern and western portions of the disputed region are administered by Pakistan and comprise three areas: “Azad Kashmir”, Gilgit, and Baltistan. In this report we use “Jammu &
Kashmir” to refer to Indian Administered Kashmir, and “Kashmiris” to refer to residents of this territory.
8 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf
9 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/KashmirUpdateReport_8July2019.pdf

5
 internet and telecommunications disruptions. Such prolonged and crippling digital sieges are a
technique of political repression and a severe impediment to the enjoyment of constitutionally
and internationally guaranteed civil, political and socio-economic rights. They curtail circulation of
news and information, restrict social and emergency communications, and silence and criminalise
political interactions and mobilisations.

India leads10 the world in ordering internet shutdowns, and both in terms of frequency and
duration Jammu & Kashmir accounts for more than two-thirds11 of Indian shutdowns. There
have been 226 documented12 internet shutdowns in Jammu & Kashmir since the year 2012.
Currently, even the 2G internet access available to Kashmiris remains extremely precarious as
localized shutdowns13 of the internet, often accompanied by mobile phone disruptions, remain
commonplace, sometimes lasting for a week. As this report goes to press, there have been 70
separate shutdowns14 in 2020. Technology researcher, Prateek Waghre estimates15 a loss of
around 3.5 billion hours (and counting) of disrupted internet access for approximately 12.25
million people. After 213 days16 (before 2G internet was partially restored in March 2020), the
internet shutdown that began on August 4th 2019, was described as the longest running17 Internet
shutdown in a democracy, and the second longest18 in the world, after Myanmar.

The news of the August 5th abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35 A, of vital
concern for the political future and rights of Kashmiris, was not available to most
due to the overnight shut-down of phones, the internet, as well as cable television
channels; though the rest of the world could watch it unfold in real time in the Indian
Parliament. In subsequent weeks, it became clear that the internet blackout was
one of a slew of repressive and violent measures adopted by India to crackdown on
political mobilisations and protests in Kashmir, and to prevent news from Kashmir
reaching the world. This was in keeping with long standing practices of using coercive
and disproportionate force (such as bans on organisations, prohibitions on public

gatherings, preventive detention, and criminal and extra judicial sanctions), against all
forms of political expression and legitimate dissent in Kashmir, by equating political
expression and activism, with threats to national security, “militancy” and “cross
border terrorism.” Widespread human rights violations were reported19 in this period,
including custodial torture, use of excessive force, enforced disappearances, and
thousands of arbitrary detentions including those of children. Large scale societal
distress and chaos20, including loss of lives, ensued, as people could not access
health and emergency services, or get in touch with missing loved ones. All of this
unfolded in the midst of undeclared martial law, mass detentions with people held
incommunicado, military barricading and restrictions on mobility, and an overarching atmosphere
of terrifying uncertainty.

The extraordinary efforts and courage of local journalists, and Indian and international news
organisations, ensured that news of the escalating humanitarian and human rights crisis began
to trickle out despite the communications blackout. Instead, the unprecedented shut down
itself became an international news story. In a letter addressed to the Indian government
asking for a restoration of the Internet, a group of five UN Human Rights Experts, including the
Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Speech and Expression, David Kaye said,21 “The shutdown
of the internet and telecommunication networks, without justification from the Government, are

10 https://internetshutdowns.in
11 https://www.accessnow.org/cms/assets/uploads/2019/07/KeepItOn-2018-Report.pdf
12 https://internetshutdowns.in
13 https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-forget-4g-internet-even-no-2g-mobile-services-in-j-k-medical-services-hit/352551
14 http://jkhome.nic.in/88(TSTS)2020.pdf
15 https://thewire.in/tech/kashmir-internet-4g-digital-wall
16 https://internetshutdowns.in
17 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/indias-internet-shutdown-in-kashmir-is-now-the-longest-ever-in-a-
democracy/2019/12/15/bb0693ea-1dfc-11ea-977a-15a6710ed6da_story.html
18 https://www.accessnow.org/keepiton-2019-report
19 http://jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019-Annual-Human-Rights-Review.pdf
20 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/world/asia/kashmir-india-pakistan.html
21 https://ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24909&LangID=E%5D

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 inconsistent with the fundamental norms of necessity and proportionality [...] The blackout is
a form of collective punishment of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, without even a pretext of a
precipitating offence.”

internet governance in a militarised state

Prior to the Constitutional amendments of August 5th 2019, Indian laws and the jurisdiction of
regulatory bodies were largely extended to Jammu & Kashmir through notification, or through
the enactment of state specific laws (such as the Ranbir Penal Code which dealt with offenses
analogous to the Indian criminal laws.) Since the abrogation and consequent legal changes, 106
Indian laws, including the Indian Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 now apply directly to Kashmir,
along with those Jammu & Kashmir legislations that have been retained or amended.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Telecom Disputes Settlement and
Appellate Tribunal are independent regulatory and adjudicatory bodies for the telecommunication
sector, empowered to adjudicate disputes, and protect the interests of service providers and
consumers of the telecom sector. Their jurisdiction extends to Jammu & Kashmir by virtue of
the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997. TRAI ordinarily adopts a consultative
process22 on important issues related to the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors and
periodically issues statements and reports on the state of the sector. For instance, it recently
issued a directive23 asking telecom companies to extend the validity of pre-paid SIM cards during
the recent nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, to ensure that subscribers get uninterrupted services.
In contrast, it has maintained a studied silence on the impact of government policies of severe
telecommunications restrictions on stakeholders in Kashmir, including consumers and service
providers in the region.

India justifies24 internet restrictions in Jammu & Kashmir on grounds of national security, public
order, and the need to prevent the spread of disinformation, citing the armed conflict and counter-
terrorism operations against Pakistan. In practice, internet shutdowns in Kashmir have emerged
as a routine law enforcement mechanism instead of an extraordinary measure, imposed both as
a reaction to and precaution against a variety of actual and perceived “threats” and events that
range from street protests, police action, militant attacks and military operations, to elections,
visits by official or diplomatic delegations, public funerals, strikes and even the viral circulation of
videos depicting atrocities. The frequency with which restrictions are imposed as a ‘precautionary
measure’, for instance on Indian national holidays like Republic Day and Independence Day, or
during religious festivals like Muharram, make clear the routine nature of their deployment.

Digital rights violations in Kashmir also cover a broad plethora of instances, ranging from complete
telecommunication blackouts to the throttling of speed, partial and localised shutdowns or
content blocking affecting certain kinds of access or users, ‘white-listing’ and ‘black-listing’ of
websites, ‘shadow bans’, and the unauthorised use of surveillance and jamming technologies. The
legal basis and grounds for imposing such restrictions are rarely made public, although the recent
judgments in Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India25 and Foundation for Media Professionals v. Union
Territory of Jammu & Kashmir26 have somewhat ameliorated this position in the law. The climate of
deniability and lack of accountability for violations is compounded by the multiplicity of legislation,
broad discretionary executive powers, and the lack of effective judicial redress.

Although the legal basis of internet restrictions were rarely made public prior to the Bhasin
judgment, in practice police authorities issued oral or tersely worded one line written directives

22 https://trai.gov.in/about-us/activities-of-trai
23 https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/trai-asks-telcos-to-extend-prepaid-validity-so-as-users-can-get-uninterrupted-services-through-lockdown-story-0Wm8HTzuO3sOW9Kn7wJHWI.html
24 https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-question-of-national-security-centre-seeks-time-in-sc-to-reply-on-4g-internet-ban-in-jk/351169
25 https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/bhasin-v-union-of-india
26 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/123992151

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 to Internet Service Providers (ISP) instructing them to summarily restrict or suspend operations,
and to file ‘compliance reports’. An example of such secretive, arbitrary and unlawful orders issued
by the Jammu & Kashmir Police, as a ‘preventive measure to avoid any law and order problems
and passing of rumours by miscreants/anti national elements’ was documented by Amnesty
International27 during the course of an earlier prolonged internet shutdown and social media
ban in 2016-2017. Such orders are also subject to official deniability: in response to a Right to
Information query, asking for copies of orders which formed the basis of the shutdowns of internet
and telephone services in July 2016, both the Home Department, Jammu & Kashmir (in charge
of the Police) and the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir (the highest executive authority in the
Kashmir districts) stated that no such orders were issued by their office28.

27 https://amnesty.org.in/news-update/communications-blackout-kashmir-undermines-human-rights
28 RTI Responses Home/ISA/2017/RTI/507 and Div.Com/RA-RTI/08/2017, on file with JKCCS.

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 The entrenched control that police authorities nonetheless continue to exercise over internet
access is underlined by the practice of compelling users to sign ‘personal bonds’ of good
behaviour. This is a precondition to restoring internet access for ‘verified’ bureaucrats,
businessmen, and even university students after conducting background checks. The bonds
imposed six conditionalities: among them the requirement that social media would not be
accessed, internet usage would be for “business purposes” only, “contents” and “infrastructure”
of internet usage would be shared as and when required by the “security agencies”, and no
encrypted files containing videos or photos would be uploaded. The Wire29 reported that the final
clearance to restore internet connections was given by the office of the Inspector General of
Police (IGP), the highest ranking police official in the region. The IGP also continues to be vested
with the powers of an official authorised to pass emergency suspension orders on precautionary
public safety grounds, under the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or
Public Safety) Rules, 2017 (through which internet restrictions are now legally imposed, after the
judgment in the Anuradha Bhasin case).

During the course of hearings in the Anuradha Bhasin case, despite repeated demands by the
Petitioner and multiple ‘opportunities’ from the Supreme Court, the government of Jammu &
Kashmir failed to disclose the specific legal basis and grounds for the complete and indefinite
telecommunications shutdown and continuing restrictions. The only public notifications finally
placed before the court were two vaguely worded “sample” orders issued by District Magistrates in
two districts under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, without outlining how these
were related to the indefinite and complete internet shutdown across all Kashmir districts, how
many other similar orders were passed, by whom, when or under what circumstances.

Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code is routinely used in Jammu & Kashmir to impose
curfew-like restrictions, particularly on free movement and public assembly. The section, whose
origins lie in colonial policing, empower a District Magistrate, a Sub-divisional Magistrate, or

any other Executive Magistrate specially empowered by the government to ‘direct any person
to abstain from a certain act’ or to ‘take certain orders with respect to certain property in his
possession or under his management’, if the Magistrate considers that such direction is ‘likely to
prevent, or tends to prevent, obstruction, annoyance or injury to any person lawfully employed,
or danger to human life, health or safety, or a disturbance of the public tranquility, or a riot, of an
affray.’ Where the circumstances do not admit serving of notice to the person against whom the
order is sanctioned this order can be passed ex parte. While no such order can ordinarily remain in
force for more than two months, if the government considers it necessary so as to prevent danger
to human life, health or safety, or to prevent a riot or any affray, the order can be extended for a
period not exceeding six months.

The Software Freedom Law Centre, has documented30 how Section 144 orders were routinely used
as a means of instituting internet shutdowns across India prior to the enactment of the Temporary
Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules in 2017. While the
Supreme Court of India has held31 that the government should only use Section 144 as ‘a last resort’
during emergencies, in February 2016, in the case of Gaurav Sureshbhai Vyas v. State of Gujarat32,
the Gujarat High Court upheld the power of the state governments to restrict access to the internet
under Section 144, observing that “It becomes very necessary sometimes for law and order.”

In September 2019, while Kashmir was still reeling under a complete internet and communication
shutdown, and the Supreme Court was hearing the Anuradha Bhasin petition on the
constitutionality of the blackout, the High Court of Kerala in Faheema Shirin v. State of Kerala33
upheld the right to access the internet as a fundamental right. The court interpreted this right

29 https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-internet-bond
30 https://sflc.in/sites/default/files/reports/Living%20in%20Digital%20Darkness%20-%20A%20Handbook%20on%20Internet%20Shutdowns%20in%20India%2C%20May%202018%20-%20
by%20SFLCin.pdf
31 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/17021567
32 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/29352399
33 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/188439981

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ANURADHA BHASIN VS UNION OF INDIA
A week after the internet and telecommunications shutdown was
imposed, Anuradha Bhasin, the editor of Kashmir Times1, the oldest
English language newspaper in Jammu & Kashmir, filed a petition
in the Supreme Court of India challenging the unconstitutional re-
strictions imposed on her fundamental rights of freedom of speech
and profession, on account of the complete and indefinite media and
internet blackout and curfew-like restrictions.

The hearings stretched over five months, with state respondents re-
peatedly seeking (and being granted) adjournments citing national
security, and the need to ensure a return to ‘normalcy’, before rights
were adjudicated or any orders passed. Each time the matter came
up for hearing the state either denied the existence of de jure re-
strictions, detailed the existence of temporary phone and internet
facilities, or stated that restrictions were being eased in a phased
manner, even as the Petitioner pressed for urgent orders, asserting
the continuing nature of the rights violations on the ground.

Petitioners advanced arguments including the unconstitutionality of

an ‘undeclared emergency’; the disproportionate, arbitrary, and im-
permissible nature of the restrictions on free speech and movement,
and the illegality of executive actions in the absence of official or-
ders or public notice. The state maintained that the restrictions were
‘necessary and proportionate’ on grounds of national security, and

were based on executive apprehensions of threats to national secu-

rity and public order. They accounted for the restrictions on mobility
under executive powers of District Magistrates under Section 144,
Criminal Procedure Code, but failed to provide any legal basis for the
internet and telecommunications disruptions, other than a handful

2 https://dot.gov.in/circulars/temporary-suspension-telecom-services-public-emergency-or-public-safety-rules-2017
of pro-forma “sample” Section 144 orders.

The final judgment centered on the question of the restrictions on

the internet: the Court affirmed Bhasin’s right to carry on her trade
and profession, and to free speech and expression over the internet,
but did not rule on whether there was a right to internet access per
se. It also reiterated the test of proportionality and necessity of re-
strictions on national security grounds. It held that restrictions must
be reasoned, specific, temporary and minimally disruptive, and that
blanket and indefinite shutdowns are unconstitutional. However,
it did not apply this test to the situation of the continuing network
disruptions in Kashmir and declare them unconstitutional. Instead it
held that future internet restrictions must be publicly notified, spe-
cific, and subject to periodic review by an executive committee as
statutorily mandated under the Temporary Suspension of Telecom
Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 20172. This in-
augurated a new phase of the internet blockade and of surveillance
in Kashmir, which continues till today, based on routine executive or-
1 http://www.kashmirtimes.com

ders that prohibit access to particular websites and throttle internet

speeds while citing grounds of national sovereignty and public order.

10
 to fall under a person’s right to education and right to privacy, which falls under Article 21 of the
Indian constitution. Three months later, while Kashmir was still under internet restrictions, and
even as the hearings in the Supreme Court case dragged on, the High Court of Assam passed
an interim order34 directing the government of Assam to restore internet services, blocked
during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. (The court stated that there was a lack
of material placed on record that evidenced a law and order problem that might result from
permitting unblocking of internet services.) In an article in The Wire35, human rights lawyer Mishi
Chaudhuri notes the continuing existence of this practice, drawing attention to the spate of
Section 144 orders for blocking of the internet used recently by Indian authorities to enact ad-hoc
communications shutdown in the context of widespread public protests against the Citizenship
Amendment Act.

These unchecked executive powers are a means of bypassing the more stringent legal
mechanisms for internet blocking laid down under Section 69 A of the Information Technology
Act, 2000 and the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. Under the Information Technology Act, a content
removal or blocking request can be sent by authorised officers in the Union Government, on
grounds of “the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security
of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to
the commission of any cognisable offence relating to the above.” This is the section upheld by the
Indian Supreme Court in the case of Shreya Singhal v Union of India36. Technology researchers
Torsha Sarkar and Gushabad Grover, point out37 that “the blocking rules envisage the process of
blocking to be largely executive-driven and require strict confidentiality to be maintained around
the issuance of blocking orders. This shrouds content takedown orders in a cloak of secrecy and
makes it impossible for users and content creators to ascertain the legitimacy or legality of the
government action in any instance of blocking.” Such opaque and arbitrary legal procedures have
been used extensively against service providers as well as thousands of users in the Kashmir
context. Vaguely worded take down notices are issued to internet based and social media

intermediaries (such as Twitter and Facebook), as the Committee to Protect Journalists38 noted
with alarm in October 2019.

Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 allows authorized officers to block the transmission
of any telegraphic message or class of messages (which has been amended to include internet
and telecommunications services) during a public emergency or in the interest of public safety. In
April 2017, this law and the 2007 rules enacted under it were cited39 by the state government as
the basis of a sweeping social media ban of one month in Kashmir valley, placed on 22 websites.
The Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 2017
were enacted in August 2017, under the Indian Telegraph Act. According to these rules, an order for
suspension of telecom services can be made by a ‘competent authority’. The ‘competent authority’
in case of the Government of India is the Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs. In case of a
State Government, the competent authority is the Secretary to the State Government in-charge of
the Home Department. After the abrogation of Article 370, in the directly ruled Union Territories of
Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, (which have in any case been under ‘President’s Rule’ since June
2018, that is, a state of emergency where administration is through a Union executive rather than the
state legislature) the Indian Union’s Ministry of Home Affairs continues to be the authority in charge.

The rules mandate that in order to be valid an order passed by the competent authority must
“contain reasons for such direction” and a copy of the order will be forwarded to a Review
Committee by the next working day. The Review Committee must meet within five working
days of the issuance of order and record its findings on the suspension order as to whether it
is in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act.

34 https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/breaking-gauhati-hc-directs-restoration-of-mobile-internet-from-5-pm-today-150949
35 https://thewire.in/rights/digital-india-is-offline
36 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/110813550
37 https://scroll.in/article/953146/how-india-is-using-its-information-technology-act-to-arbitrarily-take-down-online-content
38 https://cpj.org/2019/10/india-opaque-legal-process-suppress-kashmir-twitter
39 https://sflc.in/22-social-media-websites-blocked-kashmir-valley-one-month

11
 Following the Supreme Court judgement in the Anuradha Bhasin case, government orders that
only perfunctorily conform to these statutory requirements have been routinely passed by the
administration, the latest of which extends the restrictions of Internet speeds to August 19th
202040. In the Foundation of Media Professionals case, under orders of the Supreme Court a
special executive committee has been set up for the purpose of reviewing internet restriction
orders passed in Kashmir, given the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

surveillance, privacy and the criminalisation of online speech

Digital rights including the right to privacy of internet users in Kashmir is also severely harmed
by the dense military-intelligence and counter-insurgency grid, which enables multiple “security
agencies” to engage in covert monitoring and interception operations with little to no oversight,
public information or transparency. Aspects of this normally secretive world came into view recently
when news outlets including the Indian Express41 reported on the police’s abilities to monitor and
trace Covid-19 contacts, including through phone and internet based call and messaging services,
GPS tracking and ATM withdrawals, all the while relying on existing infrastructure and data bases. In
a recent court hearing in the petition filed by the Foundation for Media Professionals, which asks for
the restoration of unrestricted internet in light of the Covid pandemic, the Solicitor General of India,
tangentially referred to the prevailing practices of covert mass surveillance when he justified the
continuing restrictions on 4G internet on security grounds saying42 access had already been granted
to “land lines which are traceable and cannot be misused for anti-national activities.”

Under Indian law, while the Indian Telegraph Act enables executive authorities to carry out
telephone surveillance, electronic surveillance may be authorised only under the Information
Technology Act. The landmark judgements of the Supreme Court in People’s Union for Civil Liberties

v. Union of India43, and K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India44 recognised the fundamental
right to privacy, and laid down the constitutional test for the strict scrutiny of privacy
invasions on grounds of proportionality. Despite this, a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)
notification of December 2018 authorised extensive powers to ten federal agencies45 to
intercept and monitor communications. The permissible grounds for such surveillance
are extremely broad, drawing from constitutional provisions pertaining to restrictions
on free speech and expression, including the maintenance of “friendly relations with
foreign States” or “sovereignty and integrity of India.”

In Kashmir, legal restrictions and criminal sanctions have been used in conjunction with
extra-legal and unlawful censorship and surveillance measures to target social media
activists and commentators. For instance, Section 66A of the Information Technology
Act 2000 contains a provision prohibiting the dissemination of information that a person
knows to be false by means of a computer resource or a communication device ‘for
the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury,
criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill will.’ Though this broadly worded provision
has been struck down as unconstitutional46 by the Supreme Court, it continues to be
widely used against social media users, in tandem with police complaints under other
widely criticised criminal incitement and hate speech laws under the Indian Penal Code
(IPC), such as “exciting disaffection” against the state (Section 124 A, IPC), “promoting
enmity between different groups” (Section 153 A, IPC), “incitement to an offence”
(Section 505, IPC) and “disobedience of an official order” (Section 188, IPC).

40 http://jkhome.nic.in/88(TSTS)2020.pdf
41 https://indianexpress.com/article/india/with-53-cases-how-jks-srinagar-has-managed-to-tackle-covid-19-effectively-6363990
42 https://www.livelaw.in/buzz/buzz-2299
43 https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/peoples-union-of-civil-liberties-pucl-v-union-of-india
44 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/127517806
45 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/all-computers-can-now-be-monitored-by-govt-agencies/article25792523.ece
46 https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/shreya-singhal-v-union-of-india

12
 The Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, a preventive detention law that allows for
imprisonment without trial or charges for up to two years, on grounds of public order and national
security, has also been extensively used to target social media users for their posts, including in
the recent case47 of the preventive detention of former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for seven
months. In a further criminalising move, after the partial restoration of the internet in January
2020, cyber crimes police have been increasingly resorting to the use of provisions under
the draconian anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1968 to target and terrorise
social media users and journalists48. This consistent pattern of using criminal laws to target
online speech and journalism has been noted with concern in a recent letter addressed to the
Government of India by three UN Human Rights experts49.

These legal precedents and enactments relating to internet governance in Kashmir must be
contextualised within a generalised climate of entrenched impunity and repressive media
laws, including for instance The Jammu & Kashmir State Press and Publication Act, 1932,
which empowers the government to “seize any printing press, used for the purpose of printing
or publishing any newspaper, book, or other document, containing any words, signs or visible
representation which incites or encourages or tends to incite or encourage, the commission of
any offence of murder or any cognizable offence involving violence[...]; seduces any military force
officer or soldier or any police officer from his allegiance to his duty.” This provision was used in
October 2016 to impose a three-month ban on the publication of a Srinagar based newspaper,
Kashmir Reader. Instances of illegal prohibitions and expansive restrictions on popular mediums
of communication and broadcast, including cable news television, short messaging services (SMS)
and mobile internet services have been common since 2008, after the armed rebellion in the
region had largely given way to mass civilian protests and political mobilisations. For example, on
May 5th 2017, the Jammu & Kashmir government ordered all Deputy Commissioners of the state
to take action against the transmission of 34 TV channels, including all news, sports and religious
channels broadcast from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, citing their potential to ‘incite violence and

create law and order situation’ under the extensive emergency powers of the Cable Television
Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995. This law was also used in 2010, when news and current affairs
programmes were prohibited on channels operated by local cable operators. The ban continues to
be in place.

the right to access the internet

In April 2020, during a spate of heavy artillery shelling between India and Pakistan, residents
of Panzgam, a village 20 kilometres away from the massively fortified border inside Indian
territory, staged protests against the stationing and firing of artillery guns from a nearby military
encampment in the playing fields of their village. Videos and images of women and elderly
villagers confronting the military men, with their homes and the 155 mm Bofors artillery guns as
a backdrop, began to circulate on social media. Mobile data services were immediately shut down
in the entire district, through an emergency order issued by the IGP Kashmir, citing the standard
grounds of the “likelihood of misuse of data services by anti-national elements for uploading
inciting/objectionable material having the potential of disturbing the public order.” While the
official order mentioned a suspension of services for six hours, the shutdown inevitably continued
for several days.

47 https://thewire.in/law/omar-abdullah-kashmir-detention-supreme-court
48 https://thewire.in/media/use-of-uapa-against-journalists-is-last-nail-in-coffin-for-press-freedom-in-kashmir
49 https://kashmirlife.net/3-un-officials-take-up-case-of-4-kashmir-scribes-with-delhi-240158

13
FOUNDATION FOR MEDIA PROFESSIONALS VS
UNION TERRITORY OF JAMMU & KASHMIR
In April, 2020 The foundation for Media Professionals (FMP), a New Delhi
based association of journalists, Soayib Qureshi, a lawyer from Kashmir,
and the Private Schools Association of Jammu & Kashmir, filed a joint pe-
tition before the Supreme Court of India, seeking restoration of 4G inter-
net in the region in context of the Covid pandemic and the consequent
nationwide lockdown.

The Petitioners sought the quashing of the latest executive order restrict-
ing internet in the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir, which they saw
as unconstitutional, and asked for the restoration of 4G internet service.
They contended that the suspension of internet services was a violation
of their fundamental rights to health, education, freedom of speech, free-
dom of business and access to justice. The first petitioner, FMP, submitted
affidavits by doctors, journalists, teachers, students, lawyers and busi-
ness people from the region, as well as the testimony of a technology ex-
pert, to demonstrate the importance of 4G internet service. They asserted
that the Respondent state had failed to comply with the constitutional
standards for restricting internet access laid down by the Supreme Court
in the Anuradha Bhasin case and the statutory requirements of the Tem-
porary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safe-
ty) Rules, 2017 (Telecom Suspension Rules).

The Respondent state, represented by the Attorney General of India, fo-

cused on the necessity of an internet shutdown in defence of national se-
curity. They submitted that matters of national security lay exclusively in
the legislative domain of ‘policy making’ and must not be subject to judi-
cial review. They submitted that the “continuing insurgency in the region,
the spreading of fake news to incite violence, etc.” required an ongoing
restriction of internet services. They stated that as no restriction was im-
posed over fixed line internet, information relating to Covid-19 could be
received through internet as well other forms of print and electronic me-
dia, radio broadcasts, and social media.

In its judgment the Supreme Court primarily upheld the necessity of bal-
ancing national security concerns against the fundamental rights of cit-
izens. It reiterated the importance of the test of proportionality and ne-
cessity of restrictions in order to minimize the impact on the enjoyment of
fundamental rights. Despite acknowledging that the blanket restrictions
across Jammu & Kashmir did not conform to the proportionality require-
ments in the Anuradha Bhasin case, the Court did not strike down the
restriction order. Instead, keeping in mind national security implications,
the Court directed that a special Review Committee consisting of offi-
cials from the state and Union executive, should examine the Petitioner’s
contentions with regard to the extent and duration of the restrictions. (In
effect this meant that the authorities empowered to pass the restriction
orders were now to review those same decisions.) In June 2020, the Pe-
titioners further pointed out that the government had failed to constitute
the special Review Committee as directed by the Supreme Court, and
filed a contempt petition for failure to comply with its directions. Hearings
in the contempt of court proceedings are ongoing.
14
 Amidst the internet blackout and the complete restrictions on mobility imposed in the wake of
the Covid lockdown, the border war continued. The placement of the artillery guns had brought
the village into the direct line of Pakistani bombardment, and amounted to using them as human
shields, a grave violation of human rights law and the laws of war. Three civilians, a woman and
two children aged 16 and 8 were killed, and a 78 year old man injured. Middle East Eye50 reported
that “Villagers said that not only were they placed in the direct line of retaliatory attacks but the
deafening sound from Bofors artillery guns had damaged homes, terrorised children and turned
the quiet village into a war zone.”

Internet shutdowns in belligerent or politically violent contexts often function as a means of

preventing international monitoring of systemic repression and war crimes. A report51 by Jan
Ryzdak for the Global Network Initiative (GNI) that details the human rights impacts of network
disruptions states that “[n]etwork disruptions and shutdowns provide an invisibility cloak for
violence as well as gross violations of human rights and/or the laws of war. Shutdowns enable
governments and non-state actors to conceal violations of the right to bodily (or physical) integrity
and security of persons behind a digital smokescreen.” In Kashmir, local human rights groups like
the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), which advocates for rights of victims
of enforced disappearance, were unable to hold their iconic public monthly sit-ins in Srinagar.
They lost all connection with families they work with. These connections, representing years of
painstaking work in the community, were not restored even after the mobile services started
working as most people had lost their old phone connections, and had changed their connection
from prepaid to postpaid mobile services.

Recent developments in International Human Rights law affirm52 that the right to access internet
and communications technology is not a privilege but a core component of rights to freedom
of expression and opinion, and an enabler of other fundamental human rights, cutting across
the public and private dimensions of human security and dignity, as well as social, political and

economic life. Governments therefore have a responsibility to ensure that Internet access is
available, and they may not unreasonably restrict an individual’s access to the Internet.

A 2011 report53 presented by Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur ‘on the promotion and
protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression’, concluded that disconnecting
people from the internet is a human rights violation and against international law. The Special
Rapporteur called upon all states to ensure that internet access is maintained at all times,
including during times of political unrest, asserting that shutting it off in its entirety would not meet
the requirement of proportionality of restrictive measures. The UN Human Rights Council passed a
non-binding resolution54 on 27 June 2016, unequivocally condemning measures to “intentionally
prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online in violation of international
human rights law” and called on all States “to refrain from and cease such measures.” The
resolution also affirms that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected
online, in particular freedom of expression.”

While international human rights law recognises55 that governments may derogate from
human rights obligations under exceptional situations of public emergencies and conditions of
existential threat or grave peril, such restrictions must be narrowly construed and fulfil the tests
of necessity and proportionality. The 2017 Report56 of the Special Rapporteur ‘on the promotion
and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression’ is categorical in its view that
large scale, routine, shutdowns on vaguely defined national security grounds, of the sort that have
been endemic to Jammu & Kashmir, are illegal: “Network shutdowns invariably fail to meet the

50 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/india-accused-kashmir-human-shields-border-war-pakistan
51 https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/disconnected-human-rights-network-disruptions
52 https://www.amnestyusa.org/is-internet-access-a-human-right
53 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/17session/A.HRC.17.27_en.pdf
54 https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/845728?ln=en
55 https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/terrorism/module-7/key-issues/derogation-during-public-emergency.html
56 https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomOpinion/Pages/SR2017ReporttoHRC.aspx

15
 standard of necessity. Necessity requires a showing that shutdowns would achieve their stated

as well private actors such as the Reliance group.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL),
to government owned service providers like
Government policies accorded preferential access
purpose, which in fact they often jeopardize [...] Duration and geographical scope may vary, but
shutdowns are generally disproportionate. Affected users are cut off from emergency services and
health information, mobile banking and e-commerce, transportation, school classes, voting and
election monitoring, reporting on major crises and events, and human rights investigations. Given
the number of essential activities and services they affect, shutdowns restrict expression and
interfere with other fundamental rights.” Commenting on the earlier internet shutdown in Kashmir
in 2016-2017, two UN human rights experts, David Kaye and Michael Forst, issued a statement
asking for the internet to be immediately restored, stating57 that “The scope of these restrictions
has a significantly disproportionate impact on the fundamental rights of everyone in Kashmir,
undermining the Government’s stated aim of preventing dissemination of information that could
lead to violence”

The communication blockade in Kashmir also raises essential questions of the human rights
responsibilities of private corporations, particular digital access providers. In his 2017 report58 to
the Office of the High Commision on Human Rights, UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye specifically
addressed this issue stating “What governments demand of private actors, and how those
actors respond, can cripple the exchange of information; limit journalists’ capacity to investigate
securely; deter whistle-blowers and human rights defenders.” Unlawful state actions blockading
the internet enabled telecommunication and internet service providers to exploit the vulnerability
and helplessness of Kashmiris.

On the basis of TRAI data the Business Standard59 estimated that Telecom operators’ suffered
losses worth Rs 40-50 million per day. Government policies accorded preferential access to
government owned service providers like Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), as well as private
actors such as the Reliance group. After 45 days of a complete communications blackout, BSNL

landline phones were the first to be restored. Despite the continuing restrictions on mobility
people started queuing up to get new BSNL landline connections, or attempted to restore
connections that had largely been surrendered after the entry of mobile phones. The limited
relief provided by restoring BSNL landline service can be gauged by the fact that for a population
of approximately 8 million in the Kashmir valley districts, there were only 45,000 BSNL landline
connections60 till August 5th 2019. A senior BSNL officer said the company has provided over
14,000 additional landline connections in the valley since the communication clampdown.

A day after a communication blockade was imposed Jio-Fibre61, a fibre cable internet service
launched by the Reliance group, began operations in Jammu introducing high speed postpaid
services via fibre cable in the region. According to data by TRAI62, in December 2019 only Jio
was able to add to its subscriber base in Jammu & Kashmir, with its dominance of the postpaid
segment through heavily discounted schemes. Citizen Matters63 also reported on the basis of
TRAI data that out of 26,000 prepaid connections, 20,000 subscribers switched over to post-paid
subscriptions, and once mobile internet was restored, a majority shifted to Jio postpaid numbers.
However despite the disruption and lack of services all companies continued to charge subscribers
for all services, Andalou Agency64 reported, including for 4G internet,

In keeping with the concerns expressed by the UN experts cited earlier, human rights groups
such as Amnesty International65, Human Rights Watch66, and Reporters Without Borders67 have

57 https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21604&LangID=E
58 https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomOpinion/Pages/SR2017ReporttoHRC.aspx
59 https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/telcos-to-lose-rs-4-5-crore-a-day-as-internet-services-suspended-in-kashmir-119080501815_1.html
60 https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/bsnl-finds-ali-babas-treasure-trove-in-kashmir/71549784
61 https://citizenmatters.in/kashmir-business-impact-internet-suspended-post-article-370-15069
62 https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/telcos-to-lose-rs-4-5-crore-a-day-as-internet-services-suspended-in-kashmir-119080501815_1.html
63 https://citizenmatters.in/kashmir-business-impact-internet-suspended-post-article-370-15069
64 https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/14m-people-give-up-phones-in-indian-kashmir/1737126
65 https://www.accessnow.org/keepiton-open-letter-to-the-government-of-india-on-lifting-internet-restrictions-in-jammu-and-kashmir
66 https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/28/india-restore-kashmirs-internet-phones
67 https://rsf.org/en/news/indian-administered-kashmir-cut-world

16
 condemned the disruption of network connectivity in Jammu & Kashmir, highlighting the egregious
violations of rights and freedoms such disruption entails and demanding full restoration of network
connectivity. These demands have intensified in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, given the grave
implications of throttling the internet for medical and humanitarian work. In April 2020
a consortium of digital and human rights groups led by Access Now68, wrote to the
Government of India reiterating their call for the full restoration of internet connectivity
in Jammu & Kashmir. “The absence of 4G internet has particularly hindered the work
of health professionals who are on the front lines combating this global pandemic.
Doctors in Jammu & Kashmir are struggling to access important information, often
waiting hours to download and access information such as guidelines for intensive care
management of the virus and best practices recommended by the WHO. The restriction
of high-speed internet access has also impeded the work of human rights defenders,
journalists, and other actors working in the region,” the letter read.

A report69 by Global Network Initiative argues that “Large-scale disruptions

constitute a radical form of digital repression—one that curbs multiple rights
established in international treaties while undermining local, regional, and national
economies.” In discussing the issue of the right to equality and the global trend
towards digital discrimination against disenfranchised communities, the report
goes on to say, “Shutdowns may constitute a targeted form of digital repression that
disproportionately affects a marginalized community and thus constitutes collective
punishment.” This assessment of the targeted denial of internet as a systemic form
of discrimination and the violation of rights rings true in the case of Kashmir, given its
Muslim majority population and a long history of political repression and atrocities.

The digital siege in Kashmir raises important questions of human right violations,
and collective punishment, in the context of intense and organised political violence

amounting to an armed conflict70, where not just international human rights law, but the framework
of international humanitarian laws applies as well. International humanitarian law is premised on
a distinction between civilian and military targets and objectives, in addition to specifying rules
about the necessity and proportionality of military actions. In the digital age, the internet and
communications network are vital civilian infrastructure, as essential to everyday life as highways
or the postal system were when these rules were first framed. Prolonged internet disruptions and
attacks on the internet network are similar to other kinds of disproportionate collective punishment
and impermissible forms of civilian targeting, such as sieges and military blockades.

The Tallin Manual 2.071, an authoritative treatise by legal experts on the international law
applicable to cyber warfare is quite categorical that “an attack that shuts down a network shared
by civilians would be unlawful in the same way carpet bombing of cities is prohibited. Further,
shutting down the internet would amount to the “collective punishment” prohibited by Additional
Protocol I of the Geneva Convention. Accordingly, the Tallinn experts have concluded that
shutting down internet access amounts to “impermissible brutality.” In an interview72 addressing
the Kashmir shutdown, the UN Special Rapporteur for Free Speech and Expression, David Kaye
underlined this broader view when he stated “I would like to see the political bodies, including the
[UN] Security Council and General Assembly, recognise that assaults on communications amount
not only to a violation of human rights, as they have in the past, but also potential threats to peace
and security.”

The promise of lasting peace, freedom and justice for the people of Kashmir is inextricably tied
to digital and human rights in the region.

68 https://www.accessnow.org/keepiton-open-letter-to-the-government-of-india-on-lifting-internet-restrictions-in-jammu-and-kashmir
69 https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/disconnected-human-rights-network-disruptions
70 http://www.rulac.org/browse/conflicts/international-armed-conflict-between-pakistan-and-india
71 https://www.law.georgetown.edu/international-law-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2018/05/48-3-The-Tallinn-Manual-2.0.pdf
72 https://caravanmagazine.in/government/david-kaye-kashmir-draconian-undemocratic-human-rights-violation 17
 OD

18
LIHO
LIVE
TOT
GH
RI
international article 6
covenant on 1 The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right to work,

economic, which includes the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living
by work which he freely chooses or accepts, and will take appropriate

social and steps to safeguard this right.

cultural rights 2 The steps to be taken by a State Party to the present Covenant to
achieve the full realization of this right shall include technical and
vocational guidance and training programmes, policies and techniques
to achieve steady economic, social and cultural development and
full and productive employment under conditions safeguarding
fundamental political and economic freedoms to the individual.

enterprise runs aground

In Jammu & Kashmir the months between August and December are critical for tourism,
horticulture, and handicrafts, which together constitute a major segment of its economy. The
shutdown of August 2019 had severe economic consequences and the losses suffered by various
businesses in the five months after were estimated1 by the Kashmir Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (KCCI) at Rs 178.78 billion. The KCCI report also estimated2 that more than 500,000
people lost their jobs in the valley in the same period.

The communications blockade that accompanied the lockdown also made apparent how reliant
business, trade and manufacture in Kashmir had become on the internet. A report from the
Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER 20183) had previously
drawn attention to the fact that internet curbs between 2012-2017 had cost Kashmir’s economy
Rs 40 billion. In comparison the first five months of the 2019 shutdown cost the economy more
than the intermittent shutdowns of five previous years.

1 https://indianexpress.com/article/business/jk-industry-body-says-states-economy-lost-rs-17878-crore-in-5-months-6215291
2 https://www.thekashmirmonitor.net/kcci-releases-report-kashmir-lost-rs-17800-cr-in-120-days
3 https://icrier.org/pdf/Anatomy_of_an_Internet_Blackout.pdf

19
BANKING AND FINANCE
Accustomed to the frequent disruptions in physical movement in the region, including those
caused by curfews and hartals, small business and trade in J&K had quickly adapted to e-banking.
J&K Bank, a prominent bank in the region, first introduced e-banking around 2007, and its
convenience and cost-effectiveness can be measured by the fact that almost 1.1 million traders
and businessmen have signed up for these services with the bank. Most retail shopkeepers in
Kashmir have also moved their cash collection to Point-of-Sale machines, which rely on mobile
internet. One sharp indicator of the distress caused by the shutdown was the increase in defaults
in instalment payments4 to the J&K Bank: they rose from 125 before August 5th, 2019 to 11,578 in
September 2019.

For the retail consumer the internet shutdown disabled access to all modes of netbanking, as well
as various online payment portals, including mPay and Paytm. For those who had children studying
outside Kashmir, or family members in hospitals far away from home, this meant that the speedy
transfer of money through online services came to a dead halt. Locally too there were immediate
repercussions. “The number of utility bills we used to handle had dropped significantly as people
would pay these online,” a JK Bank official told the Economic Times5, “But now everyone has to
come to the bank, resulting in long queues, which has affected our productivity also.”

For those who had children studying outside Kashmir,

or family members in hospitals far away from home,
this meant that the speedy transfer of money through
online services came to a dead halt.

This loss of e-banking had other direct costs. For any bank the average ‘cost per transaction’—
depositing cash or a cheque, or transferring money—is approximately Rs 70-80. Conducted via
ATM, this cost drops to Rs 18-20. Online banking brings per transaction costs down to around
Rs 4-5. In J&K Bank where 80% of the transactions are to do with funds transfer and cash
(withdrawal or deposit), e-banking is more than a convenience for retail customers. These savings
play a crucial role in shoring up the bottom-line of the Bank, JKCCS researchers6 learnt.

Operating within a conflict zone has provided bankers in Kashmir with some training for such
internet shutdowns. However the August 2019 shutdown was unprecedented in the complete
disabling of broadband, mobile telephones as well as landline phones. Without access to email or
SMS, J&K Bank had to place notices in newspapers to reach out to their customers. (Even to place
the advertisement someone had to physically carry the material on a pen-drive to the newspaper
office.) Within the bank, only the controlling office had a leased line, and working internet. For the
rest, drivers and peons were assigned the job of carrying information from one office to another,
and from the headquarter to different zones. Eventually the Bank had to revive a long-neglected
intranet, a privately owned network for communication within the organisation. In order to access
important clients in other cities and across the world, officials in J&K Bank were reaching out to
their colleagues in other branches. Until the end of October, they were running parallel offices in
Mumbai and Delhi, JKCCS researchers6 were told, incurring huge costs, and facing the loss of many
clients due to their inability to provide services.

4 Response to RTI filed by JKCCS: JKB/ZKC1/RTI/2020-31 received 07.04.2020

5 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/145-days-of-internet-shutdown-in-kashmir-no-word-on-service-restoration/articleshow/72996839.cms?from=mdr
6 Telephone interview / Ejouz Ayoub, J&K Bank / 03.05.2020

20
HANDICRAFTS
The internet siege caused major disruptions in the handicrafts sector, a major industry in Kashmir
with more than 250,000 registered weavers and artisans. The President of KCCI estimated7
that 60,000 to 70,000 of these artisans had been rendered unemployed. For the handicrafts
industry the months of August and September are the main period when orders flow in from all
across the world, in preparation for the winter and Christmas holiday season. Kashmir Box, an
online store for Kashmiri handicrafts, which ships local products to over 50 countries worldwide,
reported lost orders to the tune of $420,000. “We’ve seen more than 400 shutdowns,” founder
Muheet Mehraj told the New York Times8, “this has been the worst of them all.” Incoming orders
could not be received, he added, and communicating with suppliers was impossible – with 25
employees idle, the extended shutdown would soon put all of them out of work. Omaira, co-owner
of an online venture called Craft World Kashmir has been working to revive the art of crochet.
Without the overheads of a retail presence she has developed a vast following on social media
sites with nearly 40,000 followers (and potential buyers) on Twitter alone. Without orders she
was unable to pay any of her employees during the shutdown, she told Newsclick9. “Artisans
work on looms, do embroidery at home and all of them are dependent on a constant supply of
material and work orders,” Pervaiz Ahmed Bhat, President of Artisan Rehabilitation Forum told
Outlook10, “What happened due to the lockdown and communication blockade is that artisans had
no contact with suppliers and they couldn’t complete their work,” he said. The President of the
Chamber of Commerce and Industries Kashmir (CCIK), Ghulam Mohiuddin Khan, estimated a loss
of Rs 10 billion to the industry since August 5th. “We couldn’t even send photographs of sample
products over email or WhatsApp to customers and prospective buyers outside the state,” he told
The Wire11.

Meanwhile, V K Saraswat12, a senior member of the NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s top
policy think tank, was reported13 as saying, “What difference does it make if there’s no internet in
Kashmir? What do you watch on internet there? What e-tailing is happening there? Besides
watching dirty films, you do nothing there. If there is no internet in Kashmir, it does not have any
significant effect on the economy.”

7 https://theprint.in/india/kashmir-internet-shutdown-hit-valley-industries-hard/312659
8 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/technology/india-kashmir-internet.html
9 https://www.newsclick.in/online-start-up--kashmir-hit-hard-internet-shutdown
10 https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-news-under-internet-lockdown-kashmirs-shawl-and-handicraft-industry-lose-their-bandwidth/302621
11 https://thewire.in/trade/cancelled-orders-missed-exhibitions-jks-handicrafts-industry-is-in-its-worst-ever-phase
12 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/niti-ayog-member-vk-saraswat-justifies-internet-ban-in-kashmir/story-VloW6aj8EDmnPjRdIg6b8O.html
13 https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1218805567822684162?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1218805567822684162%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F

21
TOURISM & TRAVEL
The most severe impact of the internet shutdown in Jammu & Kashmir fell upon the tourism
industry. A KCCI report14 for the first 120 days in 10 districts of Kashmir division alone shows the
services sector taking the biggest cumulative hit of Rs 91.91 billion, with job losses estimated
at 140,500. Around 1100 hotels had reported zero occupancy (against a normal-year average of
60-70% for the months August to October15.) The lockdown also affected thousands employed in
operating House Boats, Shikaras, Taxis, as well as those working as Photographers, Pony-wallahs,
Guides, in Rafting and Adventure Sports, and other allied services. Apart from Inbound tourists,
losses suffered by Outbound Tour Operators were also assessed, with the latter servicing over
40,000 Kashmiris who travel abroad for the Hajj pilgrimage every year. With everything to do with
travel—including online visa processing—no longer possible, this too had taken a hit.

Immediately after the August 5th travel advisory was issued, asking tourists and pilgrims to cut
short their trips, Business Today16 reported that flight prices for travelling from Srinagar had
sky-rocketed, with airlines such as IndiGo, SpiceJet, GoAir and AirAsia charging between Rs
10,000-22,000 for a one-way direct flight to Jammu (typical prices are around Rs 3000-5000.)
With the Internet shutdown in place, travellers from Srinagar were faced with a situation of black
marketeering and over-pricing of air tickets, as they could not buy tickets or verify prices online
(or even go to the Airport to purchase tickets in person due to the prevailing mobility restrictions.)
Kashmir Observer17 reported that administrative authorities tried to persuade private airlines
to open booking counters at the Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) in central Srinagar, which they
refused citing logistical issues. Eventually, this task was given to the Tourism Department which
in turn allotted counters to seven major private tour operators, leading to widespread customer
allegations of irregularities in the allocation, exploitative over pricing, and price manipulations.

Tourist Figures for Kashmir Valley

164,410

135,670 133,220

86,134 83,724

59,048

10,130 9,327
4,562
2018

2019
2017

AUG SEP OCT AUG SEP OCT AUG SEP OCT

DATA SOURCE
Tourism Dept. J&K Govt, RTI filed by The Wire, Muzamil Bhat & Chitrangada Choudhury, 26/01/2020
https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-tourism-article-370-rti

14 https://www.thekashmirmonitor.net/kcci-releases-report-kashmir-lost-rs-17800-cr-in-120-days
15 https://theprint.in/india/kashmir-internet-shutdown-hit-valley-industries-hard/312659/
16 https://www.businesstoday.in/sectors/aviation/jk-unrest-flight-fares-from-srinagar-spike-after-terror-threats-on-amarnath-yatra-route/story/370257.html
17 https://kashmirobserver.net/2019/11/12/air-ticket-counters-at-trc-fleecing-customers-authorities-mum/

22
HORTICULTURE
J&K exports around 200,000 metric tons of apples every year18, most of which is headed to the
markets of north India. The horticulture industry19 as a whole is pegged to be worth around Rs
80-90 billion annually, and contributes 10% of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP). As
profitability in the sector has grown, the area under horticulture has gone up steadily over the
years. In an area like Sopore, Indiaspend20 reported, a family with five acres of land under apple
trees could get a yield of 5,000 boxes every year, fetching a profit of approximately Rs 500,000.

When the internet and communication shutdown was put into place on August 5th 2019, many
growers were about ready to go to the market with their produce. “I had the best fruit of my life
but I could not coordinate with the market,” Shahnawaz Khan of Pinjura, Shopian told JKCCS
researchers21. “The buying of fruit is all done through commission agents, most of whom are them
in the Azadpur Mandi in Delhi, and the absence of phones made things very difficult. I had to go
to the DC office to make calls, but lines were so long that it took me 2-3 days to even make that
call,” he said, speaking of the facilities set up by the administration to allow phone calls. The loss
of Whatsapp access was even more critical for apple growers. They would normally use WhatsApp
to send photographs of their produce to commission agents, and depending on the quality would
be able to obtain an approximate rate. (An eventual variation of Rs 10-20 on a final price was
acceptable for the growers, Shahnawaz pointed out.)

When they had access to the phone and internet, growers had options for selling, negotiating with
several traders before dispatching the fruit. In August 2019, with the local Mandi shut and phone
communications blocked, the commission agent in Azadpur Mandi, Delhi sold Shahnawaz’s first
consignment at Rs 500 (per 10 kg), when it should have sold for anything between Rs 700-1200.

It was only in the middle of September, after Shahnawaz’s personal landline got working and he
on the quality would be able to obtain an approximate rate.
of their produce to commission agents, and depending
growers. They would use WhatsApp to send photographs
The loss of Whatsapp access was even more critical for apple

called the agent asking him to transfer the money—and cancel the next deal—that he was able
to better it to Rs 750. “The genuine rate for what I gave him should have been at least Rs 1000,”
Shahnawaz told JKCCS researchers, “If I had internet and phone I could have negotiated and told
him I can sell to someone else – could have sent to Bombay or another state, not Delhi.”

Other Whatsapp groups are equally important for those in horticulture. In the winter of 2019 the fruit
crops suffered heavy losses and fruit trees suffered permanent damage due to the heavy snowfall
and the non-availability of weather updates, which are usually made available through Whatsapp.
Communications between apple growers in Kashmir and commission agents, as well as with officials
from the horticulture department, also rely on the popular messaging service. Scientists from
the Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science & Technology would also recommend good
practices via Whatsapp, including timely suggestions for new techniques of harvesting.

The communications blockade affected the transportation of produce too, as coordinating with
truck owners and drivers became difficult. Tariff shot up, and transport that would cost Rs 60-70
per box was now costing Rs 180 per box. Even the simplest of things became difficult, Shahnawaz
pointed out, including just finding the truck driver: “I had to constantly go to his house to find him.
I went to his house but he was not there and his family said he’s at a shop… I spent half my day
looking for the truck driver!”

18 https://www.firstpost.com/india/kashmirs-rich-apple-harvest-comes-as-unexpectedly-sweet-news-for-indian-government-7477301.html
19 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/apple-export-from-kashmir-dips-by-1-35-lakh-metric-tonnes/articleshow/71626722.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_
medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
20 https://www.indiaspend.com/we-will-not-survive-this-disaster-kashmiri-entrepreneurs-as-lockdown-continues
21 Telephone interview / Shahnawaz Khan / 18.06.2020

23
 The Saffron industry in Kashmir also relies heavily on the internet, for it is interlinked with multiple
markets for Kashmiri saffron - international, Indian, local Kashmiri, and tourist. In each of these
segments the bulk of communications is via WhatsApp or email. Buyers ask for photos and videos
of the product and only then make purchases. Iqbal Ahmed Ganai, who is involved in the saffron
business in Pampore, told JKCCS researchers22. “I needed a phone and internet to contact the
producers and the clients. Without both, my business was completely gone. Even payments to the
producers was online via mPay. After the internet shutdown, we had to give them cheques which
made things very difficult because payments were delayed and there was a lot of running around
involved. We lost 70% of our sales due to the internet shutdown.”

Buyers from Delhi and Gujarat who were accustomed to buy saffron after looking at pictures of the
product were reluctant to send large amounts of money without being sure of the material. When
phone services restarted many buyers got back in touch with traders like Ganai. “But we could still
not send photos so we could not make any sales. Even after 2G started, it did not get better for us as
internet speed was too slow to send videos and photos. Sending videos of saffron or of processing
the saffron, that is, cleaning and cutting them, was also not possible,” he said. Saffron producers
also lost business due to their inability to check market rates via trade sites like IndiaMART, which
previously enabled them to negotiate their selling price with buyers. Domestic buyers shifted to the
competitor, Iranian saffron, which sold for Rs 55,000 per kilogram while Kashmir Saffron, while
being of better quality, with higher crocin content, was still selling at Rs 72,000.

Even after 2G started, it did not get better for us as internet speed was too
slow to send videos and photos. Sending videos of saffron or of processing the saffron,
that is, cleaning and cutting them, was also not possible,” he said.

In Kargil, where the apricot trade generates revenue of up to Rs 320 million annually, the produce
is normally routed through the horticultural trade of the Kashmir valley. Growers here also faced
major losses after the August 5th shutdown, Newsclick23 reported.

MANUFACTURE
Although Kashmir is not a major industrial zone, manufacturing still generates significant economic
activity. The largest of these industrial pockets is at Rangreth, the SIDCO Industrial Estate and
Electronics Complex on the outskirts of Srinagar, and houses 193 units spread across 1147 kanals
of land (approximately 143 acres). Apart from Cold Storage Units, and spice processing factories
(including Kanwal Spices with a turnover of close to Rs 1 billion) it houses several small units that
manufacture local essentials, including electric blankets, heaters, and wires. During the Covid-19
crisis several manufacturers located here were drawn in to provide essential supplies, including
oxygen cylinders and masks, which continue to be in acute demand due to the pandemic. Several
Small & Medium Scale Enterprises working in the Information Technology24 sector are also located
within the Rangreth Estate. (See next section)

For local manufacturers the shutdown of August 2019 came on the back of a series of setbacks
that began in September 2014 with unprecedented floods that inundated several industrial
areas, shutting them down for close to six months. In July 2016 large-scale public protests in
the aftermath of the killing of the militant leader Burhan Wani brought business to a halt for
several months. In November 2016 the sudden demonetisation of currency notes caused massive

22 Telephone interview / Iqbal Ahmed Ganai / 24.06.2020

23 https://www.newsclick.in/Kargil-Apricot-Farmers-Growing-Despair-After-Article-370
24 http://www.findglocal.com/IN/Srinagar/115259811896317/STC

24
 economic dislocation in the consumer base. Finally in July 2017 the shift from the Value Added
Tax (VAT) to Goods & Services Tax (GST) caused serious losses to most of these entrepreneurs.

“Our ease of doing business was hampered massively,” Nasir Bukhari, manufacturer of electrical
cables at the Shalteng Industrial Estate outside Srinagar told JKCCS researchers25. “We relied on
WhatsApp and E-mail heavily for communication, for example, even sending a photo of a bill which
included quantities and cost of all material.” Without the internet the need to physically interact
with suppliers of raw materials as well as customers made everything more time consuming. “The
work that I used to do, involving sheet metal work, most of it was on WhatsApp. I used to send
photos to the person who used to make the final material. He used to instantly check it and reply.
That instant communication was gone” he said. With a strong customer base in remote places like
Gurez and Kupwara, where cellular network connection remains poor even in normal times, Nasir
Bukhari would rely on the internet for communication, using WhatsApp or Email: “We lost
complete touch with our customers in those areas” he reported after the Internet Shutdown. At
the Rangreth Industrial area manufacturers eventually arranged for a dedicated line from a private
internet service provider (ISP) but after the killing of Riyaz Naikoo on May 8th 2020, that too was
snapped, and was restored only much later.

“Although the government has set up facilitation centres at various places,

these are not enough,” a businessman told Economic Times.
“For example, I have to shut my shop for a day to be able to give GST returns.
It is not only cumbersome but humiliating as well.”

Filing the complex GST returns is essential for all businesses and only possible through an
online portal. Despite the absence of the internet, there was no relaxation on filing GST returns
for business, and the government instead announced the setting up of public ‘kiosks’, meant to
service students, job applicants, contractors filing tenders and others. “Although the government
has set up facilitation centres at various places, these are not enough,” a businessman told
Economic Times26. “For example, I have to shut my shop for a day to be able to give GST returns. It
is not only cumbersome but humiliating as well.”

“I had to go all the way to Pathankot to file my GST returns. I drove 400 km to Lakhanpur and only
when I reached Madhopur, I got internet connection. I parked the car on the side of the road and
as soon as I got connected, I did my work,” Iqbal Ahmed Ganai told JKCCS researchers27 about
his experience of filing his GST. It took him three full days to file it – he spent the nights at Jammu,
driving across the border to Madhopur (in Punjab) every morning, and after finishing his internet
related work, including filing GST returns and checking emails, returned to Jammu. “The kiosk set
up at S.P. College used to get so crowded, the rush was too much. People had to wait for 2-3 days
for their turn,” Iqbal Ahmed said. He added, “If we only spend time filing GST then when can we do
other work?”

25 Telephone interview / Nasir Hussain Bukhari / 08.05.2020

26 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/145-days-of-internet-shutdown-in-kashmir-no-word-on-service-restoration/articleshow/72996839.cms?from=mdr
27 Telephone interview / Iqbal Ahmed Ganai / 24.06.2020

25
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The nascent Information Technology industry in Kashmir, with an estimated revenue of Rs 4.5-5
billion, and employing 25,000 people across the Valley, was heavily impacted by the shutdown.
YSS Microtech Pvt. Ltd., a software development and technology support company lost contact
with their clients for almost four months: they eventually forfeited 150 of their 400 hard-won
clients. Its founder, Shahid Nazir Shah spoke to JKCCS researchers28 of their venture into
Diagnostic Labs. With its heavy dependence on the internet, it had to be wound up after the August
5th shutdown despite the fact that it had several premium clients in Kashmir.

At the end of January 2020 when the company’s internet connection was finally restored, access
was conditional and “mac-bound,” with restrictions on exactly which terminals could access the
connectivity. The responsibility for restoring connections lay with ‘Nodal officers’, who usually
had little insight into the technical requirements of business entities to whom internet access
was being provided. Users were further restricted to a ‘white-list’ of 150 (later expanded to 400)
websites, few of which were useful for software developers. The list included Zomato, a restaurant
aggregating website which does not operate in Kashmir, while those essential for business
remained unavailable. It was only when 2G services were restored in Kashmir in mid-January
2020 that YSS Microtech was once again able to access the open source websites that are critical
for their work.

Other IT firms tried to shift to New Delhi and Chandigarh, in what was referred to as ‘internet
migration’, but relocation costs far exceeded revenues. The head of an IT company, with more than
150 staff and clients spread across the world, told Quartz magazine29 about moving out of Kashmir:
“We had to spend more than we earned. We had to do it so that our clients retained their faith in us.”

The cost of shifting business outside Kashmir was too high for small companies like YSS technologies
and they had to instead lose clients and lay off workers – with 12 employees before the lockdown
the company was left with only 5. A young woman entrepreneur who runs a center where students
from across Kashmir take online exams like the TOEFL, told Buzzfeed30 “I’ve pleaded so many times
before [the authorities]. I told them to give it to us on just one laptop. I told them, ‘Track the usage on
that computer if you want.’ But no. They haven’t budged,” Ismat Salaria said. “This is the worst thing
that could have happened to my business,” she said with regret.

He estimated that there are about 12 other similar companies

in Rangreth, and 50 other software companies in Srinagar, earning
a revenue of Rs 5 billion and employing 1,500 men and women.
“The IT sector in Kashmir is dead,” he told Indiaspend.

In August 2019, immediately after the internet was shut down, a senior official of a Rangreth
based IT company and ISP was detained by authorities, and kept for eight days in a cell six
feet long and six feet wide. He was charged with keeping communication lines open for an hour
after an official shutdown was ordered, the CEO of the company told Buzzfeed. “I can’t tell you
how worried his family was,” he said. “I will speak to you to unburden myself and because they
[government] cannot harm us more than they already have,” a software entrepreneur at the
Industrial Estate at Rangreth, who spoke on conditions of anonymity told IndiaSpend31. The
entrepreneur had left a well-paying job at an American multinational and returned home to set

28 Telephone interview / Shahid Nazir Shah / 04.04.2020

29 https://qz.com/india/1803539/kashmirs-internet-shutdown-makes-startups-students-flee
30 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/no-email-no-whatsapp-no-internet-this-is-now-normal-life-in
31 https://www.indiaspend.com/we-will-not-survive-this-disaster-kashmiri-entrepreneurs-as-lockdown-continues

26
 up his own enterprise, with 174 skilled employees, most of them of Kashmiri origin. He estimated
that there are about 12 other similar companies in Rangreth, and 50 other software companies in
Srinagar, earning a revenue of Rs 5 billion and employing 1,500 men and women. “The IT sector in
Kashmir is dead,” he told Indiaspend.

STARTUPS
In 2018 the government had made public a ‘J&K Start-up Policy’ to buoy the entrepreneurial spirit
of Kashmiri youth, aiming to “facilitate and nurture the growth of at least 500 new start-ups in
J&K in the next 10 years.”32 The internet shutdown certainly put an end to those plans. Fastbeetle,
an online “courier and parcel service company” for local businesses in Kashmir suffered a major
loss in its customer base of over 15,000 at the start of August 2019. “Internet is the oxygen for
start-ups. The Centre pulled that plug on August 5th. The virtual world was our space for growth.
Now that’s gone,” Sheikh Sami Ullah of FastBeetle told The Hindu32. Lalchowk, a valley based
online platform for books, had to shut down their operations and the founders were forced to leave
Kashmir to find other jobs. Captivating Kashmir, founded by young Kashmiris as a digital marketing
platform also had to suffer major losses, and lost all their partnerships after the internet shutdown,
co-founder, Zaid Qureshi told JKCCS researchers33. Unable to provide service they had to refund
all payments received. Another business initiative of online delivery of groceries too had to be
shut down after the communication blockade, he said. Seven months of work came to a grinding
halt as soon as the internet snapped and Zaid soon joined the ranks of the ‘internet migration’,
compelled to move to Delhi to finish his pending projects. Kashmir Art Quest, an online initiative
that brought 435 local artists together to display contemporary art on social media to prospective
buyers across the world also went under. “The Internet provided a rare window to young artists

in Kashmir to highlight their work. We managed to develop economic linkages for artists. People
started buying local art,” Mujtaba Rizvi, its founder told The Hindu32, “All that collapsed. There is
no communication. We are fast losing the network we had managed to put together since 2010.”

GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
With almost all government work mandated to be tendered online, or involving procedures that
require online intervention, these projects were badly hit by suspension of the internet. Those
hit hardest by the shutdown included some of the most vulnerable sections of society, including
those covered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Aimed at
enhancing livelihood security in rural areas, MGNREGA attempts to provide at least 100 days of
wage employment in a year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled
manual work. J&K State has over 1.55 million active workers under this scheme, a substantial
number of them in the Kashmir division. One official told the Indian Express34 that “According
to Government of India rules, all the work at the rural level, whether through panchayats or the
MGNREGA, has to be geo-tagged. Pictures of projects need to be uploaded at different stages of
work completion and digital signatures are required for approval of payments. These can happen
only after an SMS is received on the registered mobile number. None of this is working as of now,
so no work can take off either.”

32 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/in-a-land-without-internet-how-the-communication-blackout-is-forcing-young-entrepreneurs-out-of-kashmir-valley/article30219792.ece
33 Telephone interview / Zaid Qureshi / 29.03.2020
34 https://indianexpress.com/article/india/jk-shutdown-internet-ban-take-toll-projects-stuck-govt-work-hit-6078229

27
 With an aim of bringing about greater transparency, tendering for Government projects has also
moved online in J&K. Despite the communication lockdown e-tendering however continued,
adversely affecting bidders from the region. The tenders covered the improvement of road
surfaces, construction of culverts, manholes and drains, and a range of other developmental
works. Registered contractors, The Tribune35 reported, were told that the date and time of bids
would be notified on the website www.jktenders.gov.in and conveyed to the bidders through email,
neither of which was available to them due to the shutdown. Bidders were also instructed to
download the ‘bid submission manual’ from this website, and told that “the bids of responsive
bidders shall be opened online on the same website.” The notifications made it clear to bidders
that “No bid will be accepted in physical form.” Months later, and even after basic internet services
became available via crowded government-run internet kiosks, there was no significant
improvement. One contractor told Kashmir Reader36 that “for OTP generation while filing tenders it
is necessary to have a functional mobile. That is why we have to visit other states to file tenders.”

It seems the government wanted us out of this business to leave

the field open for outsiders. Else, how will they justify inviting
tenders online when there was no Internet in Kashmir?”

In February, 2020 Jammu & Kashmir’s Geology and Mining department announced that ‘sand
blocks’ in Pulwama, Srinagar and Baramulla districts had been auctioned against a bidding
amount of Rs 720 million for a period of five years. This was a record high and for the first time
ever individuals and companies from outside Kashmir had bagged a majority of contracts for the
extraction of minerals from its water bodies. More than 200 mineral blocks in the Jhelum and its
tributaries, across all 10 districts of the valley, had been opened up for the mining of boulders,
gravel, sand and other river bed material, The Wire37 reported.

Applications for the auction had been invited online in December 2019, thethirdpole.net38 had
reported earlier, at a time when internet connectivity in Kashmir was completely blocked. The
auction was particularly significant as J&K’s erstwhile special status had barred businesses
from outside the state leasing or renting local mineral blocks. With the scrapping of Article
370 individuals and private companies from outside J&K were allowed to participate in these
auctions for the first time in October 2019. It is noteworthy that this happened despite recent
recommendations to the contrary by the Central Water & Power Research Station, as well as by
a World Bank supported study39 that said that dredging and sand mining of the main channel of
Jhelum was not advisable and may cause difficulties for flood management. The environmental
concerns seemed not to be a priority for the department. “The revenue realisation will be far
higher. It was in lakhs of rupees in the past, now the revenue will jump to crores of rupees,”
Imtiyaz Ahmad Khan, joint director of the Geology and Mining Department told The Wire40. “The
higher the revenue, things will be better for the government,” Khan told reporters.

Although many of the local contractors and sand diggers associated with the extraction had
participated in the bidding, waiting for hours outside crowded ‘e-kiosks’ in Srinagar, or travelling
to other parts of the country to complete the formalities, most were deprived of a level playing
field. Given the backdrop of transformations of land ownership and citizenship laws against which
the internet shutdown was occuring, Kashmiri fears of a resource grab deliberately benefiting
outsiders seem well founded. Speaking to The Wire40, a contractor who had been in the field for
the past 26 years summed it up: “It seems the government wanted us out of this business to leave
the field open for outsiders. Else, how will they justify inviting tenders online when there was no
Internet in Kashmir?”

35 https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/j-k/amid-net-shutdown-govt-invites-e-tenders-for-works-835659
36 https://kashmirreader.com/2019/09/29/e-tendering-hit-by-internet-blockade
37 https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-jhelum-mineral-blocks-bidding-online
38 https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/02/17/mining-expands-on-kashmiri-rivers-despite-dire-warnings
39 http://jtfrp.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Task1_Report_Final.pdf
40 https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-jhelum-mineral-blocks-bidding-online

28
Yasmin Rashid was 27 when she got married in April 2019 to a man whose parents did not approve of the match.
She belongs to a Hanji family, a community of traditional dwellers on water bodies in Kashmir. Growing up on the
Dal Lake in Srinagar, her family ran their own houseboat, of which she was the manager. Yasmin is eager to talk: “I
want to talk about caste in Kashmir, because I have faced this discrimination myself. I’m from Dal and my husband
is from land, (and) for a long time, my husband’s family did not accept me. It was only after months of living alone
that they allowed me into their home, where we now live.”

This isolation was not easy–after the communication blockade on August 4th, 2019, Yasmin and her husband were
completely cut off from friends and relatives. That night her husband had a motorcycle accident. The communica-
tion blockade had set in, and the young couple were completely cut off from friends and relatives “We could not
call the hospital because there was no network–so we went from one hospital to the next… one would be closed,
the other would send us somewhere else,” says Yasmin. “Eventually when we got to the JVC Hospital in Bemina,
and there I was all alone with my husband, they were recommending surgery. But I couldn’t call anyone for a sec-
ond opinion, (so) we just got the plaster and went home.”

With a strict curfew and a complete communication shutdown, Yasmin would step out early in the morning to get
medicines for her husband–after that the shutters would go down on all stores. “We were in Soura, where there were
clashes, the forces would come, windows and glass would shatter. Having lived in the Dal I had never seen this, and
since me and my husband were alone, with no communication, we would just constantly live in fear,” she says.

YASMIN RASHID
SPEAKING WITH AB

By October 2019, even as the restrictions eased somewhat, Yasmin was pregnant. But with the Covid-19 lock-
down in March 2020, access to doctors became even more difficult. “The visits I had to do twice monthly started
to happen only once a month. I couldn’t access any healthcare online, could not order medicines online because
there was no internet,” she recalls. This meant having to walk to a clinic, potentially exposing herself to risk of
contracting the virus.

When it was time for the delivery, Yasmin tried to apply online on the link given by government hospitals for an
ambulance–the page did not load. This time there was a complete shutdown in Srinagar as the armed forces had
just killed Riyaz Naikoo, a militant commander of the Hizb-ul Mujahideen, and as always, all communication was
suspended. It was in the midst of this that Yasmin was struggling to make calls on the number provided by the
hospital. Eventually, she was forced to resort to private healthcare, which was significantly more expensive.

This was not an easy prospect, since the economic impact of the internet shutdown, Yasmin says, has been cat-
astrophic: “The internet was our livelihood–all the bookings came from there, but since August 5th we had no ac-
cess. Only we know how the family is managing to survive.” Along with the management of the houseboat, Yasmin
ran a handicrafts business, wherein she would sell locally made wares to tourists, as well as take orders from a
company in New Delhi. “The loss has been immense, I had an order worth around Rs 50-60,000 in August, and I
could not complete it since I couldn’t reach my workers, I couldn’t reach the company. They had an exhibition in
London and the stuff could not be delivered. It took really long to explain to them what we are going through here,”
says Yasmin.

With the tourism industry taking a major hit, those on the economic and social fringe have been hit particularly
hard. With the Covid-19 lockdown, Yasmin worries about the future of both her child and her business, her paren-
tal home, their houseboat, all of which are presently struggling to stay afloat. 29
 RI
TO GH
T
HEAL

30
TH
preamble to the 1 Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-

constitution of being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

world health 2 The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one
of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction

organization of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.

blinded amidst a pandemic In early March 2020 as people in Jammu & Kashmir emerged from seven months of an internet
blackout, they faced a new regime of highly controlled internet speeds, and unpredictable and
ever-changing access. This was also the time when the Corona pandemic finally began to be
taken note of by the Indian Government, and the scale of the crisis began to unfold. The unknown
character of Covid-19, and the virulence and velocity with which it had travelled across the globe,
meant that evolving information about its spread, and life-saving protocols for its treatment and
prevention, circulated in real time over the internet. Many of these urgent updates, including
those provided internationally by the World Health Organisation, were in the form of data heavy
PDFs and videos. The reduced Internet speed in J&K was simply not equipped to handle these:
one medical practitioner in Sringar described his predicament on Twitter1 – “Trying to download
the guidelines for intensive care management as proposed by docs in England... 24 Mbs and one
hour... Still not able to do so….”

The slowdown in internet speeds in place since March 2020 (and which continues through to the
publication of this report) effectively cut off doctors in J&K from participating in and learning from
conversations taking place between doctors across international boundaries, often on a daily
basis. Preparing for Emergency Response duties, another doctor pointed out on Twitter2 that “an
internet connection, especially in a pandemic, is like an eye to the emergency physician. Kindly
don’t blind us in that eye.”

“Complete shutdowns or restricting of internet speed or access makes it difficult for people to
navigate their way through a difficult time further undermining their trust in the authorities,”
Amnesty International3 said in a statement, “The Government of India needs to adopt a rights-
respecting approach to protect public health and restore access to 4G speed internet.” An open

1 https://twitter.com/DrIqbalSaleemM1/status/1240632850812030977?s=20
2 https://twitter.com/khawar_achakzai/status/1241668873801191424?s=20
3 https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/03/mitigate-risks-of-covid-19-for-jammu-and-kashmir-by-immediately-restoring-full-access-to-internet-services
31
 letter issued by the Kashmir Scholars Consultative and Action Network (KSCAN4) pointed out that “in
these times of a global pandemic—where timely access to critical information by the doctors and the
public might be a key to survival—India is punishing Kashmiris via an internet 2,000 to 20,000 times
slower than the rest of the world. The actions of the Indian government constitute denial of critical
and humanitarian assistance and as such are criminal and a breach of the Geneva Conventions.”

HOSPITALS AND PATIENTS

The denial of access to medical and humanitarian assistance in Kashmir did not begin with the
Covid-19 pandemic. A highly militarised lockdown was already in place from August 5th, 2019, as
Section 144 was imposed all across the region, train and road transport services were suspended,
and markets and schools shut down. In this atmosphere of uncertainty and fear, access to
accurate information was of even greater importance. In its absence, people were forced to turn to
rumour and word of mouth advice.

The shutdown that had been imposed in August 2019 had already severely impacted public
access to hospitals, emergency services and health systems across J&K. The total shutdown of all
phone systems, landline and mobile, meant that patients were unable to reach doctors, hospitals,
and most critically, even the ambulances that could possibly have carried them past the security
barriers. Patients who had recently undergone serious surgical procedures could not be contacted
for post-op care by their doctors, Dr Omar Akhtar, a urologist in Srinagar, told JKCCS researchers5.
Some took an early discharge from hospital, anxious because they could not contact their relatives
any more. With crippling barriers on road movement, patients with scheduled surgeries were
unable to travel to hospitals for several months, and surgeries that had been planned months
in advance were cancelled. Dr Akhtar spoke out about the possibility of a humanitarian crisis
following the shutdown in Kashmir, with some operation theatres remaining closed till the middle
of September 2019.

Administrators of health services were equally without access to mobile phones or landlines.
The exceptions were known6: mobile phones were said to be active only for the Head of the Shri
Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS) in Srinagar (who also heads four other hospitals in the city),
the Director of Health Services, and the Chief Medical Officers of the Districts. But even these
officials were unable to reach out to any of the institutions under their care, and could only report
up the hierarchy of the medical bureaucracy.

Without public transportation and with restrictions on movement, hospitals were forced to send
ambulances to ferry hospital staff to and from work. Without landline or mobile phones this too
became a major hurdle. Called upon to fetch a specialist doctor late one night to deal with an

4 https://www.inversejournal.com/2020/03/22/amid-covid-19-pandemic-over-170-academics-from-around-the-
world-demand-india-restore-high-speed-internet-release-kashmiri-political-prisoners
5 Telephone interview / Dr Omar Salim Akhtar / 10.03.2020
6 https://www.indiaspend.com/in-jk-shutdown-pms-health-scheme-grinds-to-halt-healthcare-crisis-grows

32
 emergency, an ambulance driver at SMHS hospital told Al Jazeera7 that since he didn’t know
the doctor’s house, and could not call him either, he had to literally knock on every door in the
neighbourhood in the middle of the night. Within the premises of Srinagar’s Government Lal Ded
Hospital, one of the largest tertiary care maternity hospitals in Kashmir, the inability to reach out
to the doctors on phone was resolved by mounting a loudspeaker on top of the building, Al Jazeera
reported, and doctors were loud-hailed when required. A full month into the shutdown Srinagar’s
SMHS, one of the region’s two major government hospitals, was still without a working landline,
Indiaspend6 noted.

Although doctors, hospital owners and health officials had been instructed by the government not
to speak to the media, the information that trickled out was telling. In anticipation of widespread
civic disturbances Government hospitals had been told to prepare themselves for emergencies,
and postpone “routine” procedures. Patient access to critical care was consequently severely
curtailed. In the month of August 2019 the privately owned Khyber Hospital saw its angioplasties,
a procedure to treat blocked blood vessels in the heart, drop from an average of 30-40 to a
quarter of that number. At the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, a doctor told The
New Humanitarian8 that the hospital’s PET scan machine, used to detect cancerous growths, sat
virtually unused through the month of August 2019 “because patients couldn’t reach the hospital
– and because the communications blackout prevented doctors from ordering the drugs used with
cancer tests.”

7 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/chaos-crisis-kashmir-hospitals-month-long-lockdown-190905205741695.html
8 https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2019/09/19/Kashmir-lockdown-healthcare-access-rights-crisis

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33
 The shutdown affected everything from the lowest level up. Pediatric and maternity services were
the hardest hit. Unable to call an ambulance, a woman with a complicated pregnancy was forced
to walk seven miles to the nearest hospital, which took hours in her worsening condition. “Had
there been a phone working, I would have called an ambulance right to my house,” her husband
told the New York Times9. By the time they made it to a hospital in Srinagar, the couple had lost
their baby. One doctor who did not want to be identified out of fear of reprisal told the New York
Times that “at least a dozen patients have died because they could not call an ambulance or could
not reach the hospital on time, the majority of them with heart-related disease’’.

SHARING EXPERTISE
Without the ability to contact senior consultants in the eventuality of an emergency, many
surgeons, especially those in smaller private hospitals, decided against operating on “high-risk
cases” after August 5th. The widespread use of Whatsapp groups amongst doctors, and between
doctors and patients was also seriously affected. Many patients come to Srinagar’s tertiary care
hospitals from remote areas and find it difficult to return for follow up appointments. To prevent
patients skipping on post-operative protocols, many doctors choose to video call them to assist
with potential changes in medications or side effects. The shutdown suddenly and completely
isolated those dependent on this crucial, yet inexpensive, measure.

“We were doing very good for the past few months. We were managing
patients at the district hospital, advising doctors through the Save Heart Initiative
how to treat the cardiac patients and how to save heart attack patients.
Now, all of a sudden, they snapped the lifeline which connects us with doctors
throughout the Valley,” a medical doctor told Outlook.

A Kashmir centered WhatsApp based intervention, the Save Heart Initiative, has in fact helped
patients, mostly in remote and inaccessible areas, to even survive cardiac emergencies by giving
doctors the ability to intervene during the ‘golden hour’, The Hindu10 reported. Save Heart Initiative
had been celebrated as a Kashmiri success story, with over 13,000 interventions, and with
hundreds of Kashmiri doctors (including some in the United States) part of the group, uploading
electrocardiograms and other vital information, and then getting life-saving advice from one
another. After August 5th this initiative too had been silenced. Heart attacks did not stop, a senior
cardiologist told Indiaspend11, especially in circumstances of attenuated stress. Patients were
simply not able to reach the hospital. When the internet—at reduced 2G speeds—returned to
the region Save Heart Initiative was able to resume its services. But frequent shut offs in service
meant that the service was simply not as reliable any more. The internet shutdown that followed
the killing of militant commander Riyaz Naikoo caused a major disruption. “We were doing very
good for the past few months. We were managing patients at the district hospital, advising
doctors through the Save Heart Initiative how to treat the cardiac patients and how to save heart
attack patients. Now, all of a sudden, they snapped the lifeline which connects us with doctors
throughout the Valley,” a medical doctor told Outlook12.

Medical diagnostics equipment, with its fairly sophisticated–if routine–maintenance and software
needs, was also crippled without the internet. At the Bone & Joint Hospital, Srinagar, the MRI
machine–one of three in government hospitals here–is run as a public-private partnership.
Without software updates technicians were soon dealing with frequent glitches. Prior to the

9 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/world/asia/kashmir-doctors-phone.html
10 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/a-whatsapp-network-helps-protect-hearts/article25185237.ece
11 https://www.indiaspend.com/in-jk-shutdown-pms-health-scheme-grinds-to-halt-healthcare-crisis-grows
12 https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-forget-4g-internet-even-no-2g-mobile-services-in-j-k-medical-services-hit/352551

34
 communications siege, when a problem became evident technicians at the diagnostic centre
would use WhatsApp to send screen-shots of the MRI machine’s display screen to the company.
Problems were usually “promptly resolved,” staff at the diagnostic centre told Indiaspend. Without
internet access this was no longer possible.

GOVERNMENT HEALTH SCHEMES

In 2015 the Government of India launched ‘Digital India’, an ambitious campaign, with the aim
of making government services more easily available to citizens through the internet. Digital
technology was a major thrust of this scheme, and equitable access to the Internet was the basis
for accessing many essential services through it. Several pre-existing schemes and programmes
were also included under this initiative, making their effective functioning ever more reliant on
the internet.

One such scheme was the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Prime Minister’s
Public Health Scheme), which provided persons falling below the poverty line healthcare services
upto Rs 500,000 a year. In the first 6 months of its implementation J&K had reported a coverage
of 57% of all eligible households, the best figures in the country in terms of penetration, The
Tribune13 reported. Since registration and processing of claims took place entirely over the
internet, there was no way to continue providing treatment without that access. Persons falling
under this scheme suddenly found hospitals not being able to honour claims. Presuming that the
internet would be restored soon, Srinagar’s Khyber Hospital allowed free services for ‘golden’ card
holders for almost three weeks. But some weeks later, with these bills adding to the amount that
was already due to them from the central government, hospital authorities stopped free treatment

for Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries. Urologist Omar Akhtar recounted to JKCCS researchers14
how some of his patients were unable to access the Ayushman Bharat scheme due to the lack of
internet access, and ended up paying out of pocket for dialysis.

PHARMACEUTICALS
The internet has grown to be central to the pharmaceutical business. With no significant drug
manufacturing units in Kashmir (or the Ladakh region), all medicines—from paracetamol to insulin
to anti-cancer drugs—need to be ordered from outside. Kashmir gets more than 80% of its medical
supplies from Jammu, The Wire15 reported, while the rest is sourced from Chandigarh, New Delhi,
Mumbai and other Indian cities. Pharmaceutical distributors must order–and pay–online for their
supplies, as well as to fulfill requests from pharmacies in rural areas of the Valley. Without the
internet or access to phones, the supply-link between the drug stores, stockists and depots was
broken. Traders who ventured outside of J&K in order to do so ran into other hurdles: since they
had not filed their GST returns after the August 5th shutdown, they found themselves unable to
enter the e-way bill generation system, which showed them as defaulters, the Economic Times16
said. A saving grace was that pharmacies in the city, used to frequent disturbances in supply,
usually kept a few months’ worth of essential medicine, Arshid Ahmed, co-convenor of the J&K
Chemists and Distributors Association told JKCCS researchers17. This was the safety net used to
get through the first few months of the lockdown.

13 https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/j-k/centre-lauds-j-k-efforts-for-health-scheme-778769
14 Telephone interview / Dr. Omar Akhtar / 10.03.2020
15 https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-life-saving-drugs-clampdown-continues
16 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/cant-buy-medicines-amid-net-ban-kashmir-traders/articleshow/72450613.cms?from=mdr
17 Telephone interview / Arshid Ahmed / 02.05.20

35
 Pharmaceutical distributors must order–and pay–online for their supplies,
as well as to fulfill requests from pharmacies in rural areas of the Valley.
Without the internet or access to phones, the supply-link between the drug stores,
stockists and depots was broken.

MENTAL HEALTH
Areas that have seen a continued period of violence and conflict often have a higher prevalence
of mental disorders18. The international NGO Médecins Sans Frontières and the Srinagar-based
Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) had pointed out in a pioneering 2016
study19, that 45% (1.8 million) of the Kashmiri population showed signs of living with a mental
illness, the highest rates being for Anxiety, Depression, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders. In
2016 IMHANS collaborated with ActionAid on a study20 that estimated that 11.3 percent of the
population had a mental health disorder – higher than the Indian national prevalence of around
seven percent21. But few were able to get treatment, it had pointed out.

In treating mental illness in addition to medication and therapy, it is important that a support
system be established, so as to prevent relapses or further episodes. In December 2019
Dr. Arshad Hussain, a psychiatrist who had also co-authored the 2016 ActionAid study, told
The New Humanitarian22 that Kashmir was one of the “saddest places in the world.” This
was magnified by months of a physical and communications blockade, since most people
who needed help were unable to access any treatment at all. The ramped-up security and
checkpoints during the initial months of the lockdown had simply made an already difficult
situation much worse. With almost all mental health services concentrated in Srinagar, these are

often inaccessible to patients in rural areas. Shortly after the August lockdown Médecins Sans
Frontières shut down their mental health services in four districts of Kashmir valley as they were
unable to reach their staff, The Wire23 reported.

Many mental health patients also use the internet to communicate with their psychologists
and psychiatrists, or with their primary support structures of friends and family. Frequent
communication shutdowns are more than just disruptions in individual relationships, for they
isolate individuals and trigger pre-existing vulnerabilities. The effects manifest themselves in many
different ways, some of which are a clear indicator of worsening mental health.

Dr Anirudh Kala, a Ludhiana based psychiatrist and writer, who visited Kashmir as part of a civil
society fact-finding team24 at the end of September 2019 reported that follow up rates at IMHANS
were 30-40 percent of the average prior to the August 5th lockdown. It would follow, he pointed
out, that there would have been a proportionate increase in relapses. The effect a clampdown can
have on the mental health of a region like Kashmir is immense. The feeling many describe is one
of being in limbo - feeling unable to do anything because of the prevailing uncertainties. Schools
have been shut for over 11 months, offices and businesses shut for even longer periods of time,
and restrictions on movement have meant that people have been largely confined indoors. Clinical
psychologists have noted an increase in the number of patients, The Guardian25 reported, with
many showing symptoms triggered by recent events. The exact impact of the communication
blockade on people’s mental health, even in the medium term, will only be known after a few

18 Charlson, Fiona, et al. “New WHO prevalence estimates of mental disorders in conflict settings” The Lancet 394.10194 (2019): 240-248.
19 https://www.msfindia.in/msf-scientific-survey-45-kashmiri-population-experiencing-mental-distress
20 https://www.actionaidindia.org/publications/mental-health-illness-in-the-valley
21 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2956997
22 https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2019/09/19/Kashmir-lockdown-healthcare-access-rights-crisis
23 https://thewire.in/health/kashmir-blackout-report-mental-health
24 http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/Report-final-.pdf
25 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/23/people-are-panicked-kashmir-curfew-takes-toll-mental-health

36
 years, a psychiatrist at IMHANS told IndiaSpend26: “The average lag between people facing mental
health issues and seeking treatment is about 3-5 years.”

The impact of the communications lockdown in Kashmir was felt equally sharply even amongst
those Kashmiris who were living outside the region. The inability to speak to families, to share
news or even receive financial support, was particularly hard on the well-being of the large number
of students studying all over India, and abroad, as well as the large numbers of medical patients
who were undergoing treatment in hospitals across India. Kashmiri students in India were
targeted by other students and colleagues, who accused them of being “terrorists” or “anti-
nationals,” several young Kashmiris told the authors of the #Kashmir Civil Disobedience27 report.
These forms of a cruel “othering” were the most difficult to deal with, they said.

The impact of the communications lockdown in Kashmir

was felt equally sharply even amongst those Kashmiris
who were living outside the region. The inability to speak
to families, to share news or even receive financial support,
was particularly hard on the well-being of the large number
of students studying all over India, and abroad

26 https://www.indiaspend.com/communications-blockade-creates-new-mental-health-challenges-in-kashmir/
27 http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/Report-final-.pdf

37
Hakima Banoo Ali returned to Kargil from Srinagar ten days before the shutdown of August 2019. A Master’s
student of Convergent Journalism in the Central University of Kashmir, she was supposed to attend her sister’s
wedding on August 4, and then go back to university a day later. “There were rumours about a threat on the bor-
der, which brought back fears of the 1999 war. And then just as suddenly everything was shut down and Article
370 was abrogated,” says the twenty-five-year-old. On a harsh winter morning in Kargil, Hakima explained how
the curfew as well as the internet shutdown had completely derailed her studies, for even though the internet
shutdown was lifted in Kargil, it persists in Kashmir. “Our internal exams were on in December, but I couldn’t go
back as the roads were closed, and even if possible, how would I have done any self-study without the internet?”
asks Hakima. “I left my books and notes behind because I was only supposed to be back for ten days, and then
to be unable to go online? It’s completely impossible.” She finally made it to Kashmir—via Delhi—for her exams in
January, then taking the same route back to Kargil. Her classes eventually began in early March, only to be shut
down again owing to the pandemic.

An aspiring journalist, Hakima Banoo has also been taking online courses through this time—including a digital cor-
respondence course in Persian, from Iran. She says she would receive calls from teachers pulling her up for being
inactive and absent—“I was missing the semester exams and they kept calling me for those. When I told them I
didn’t have internet access, that was the end of that, they could not keep waiting for me and extending deadlines.”

HAKIMA BANOO ALI

SPEAKING WITH AB

A few kilometres away from the main town is Drass, known as the second coldest inhabited place in the world.
Since many of their school teachers come from Srinagar—only 150 km away—and with no internet services for
about 5 months, teaching services had been suspended and learning had almost entirely ceased for students in
the high school. “Usually the roads close by December, but this year the teachers went back by September,” said
a young student from class 12. With the Covid-19 lockdown, this suspension of education has only persisted.
Since teachers in Srinagar have no access to mobile data, and very limited access to the internet, online classes
are ruled out for the children in Drass.

While people in Kargil had initially protested the August 5th abrogation of Article 370 and Ladakh’s bifurcation from
J&K, the Leh region had celebrated it. However, owing to their continued exclusion from the Sixth Schedule of the
Constitution of India—which would have granted Ladakhis the right to administer tribal areas through autono-
mous district and regional councils—students and activists in Leh too took to the streets in protest.

In Kargil, the internet shutdown persisted for over 150 days—this and the annual shutting down of roads during
winter meant nearly every business suffered. The tourism industry took a major hit, losing the online bookings
that come through during December. Eventually with the extended Covid-19-related lockdown, and renewed bor-
der tensions between India and China since June 2020, tourism too has seen a complete wash-out.

38
 N
39
ATIO
EDUC
TOT
GH
RI
united nations human rights council: resolution 26/13
general assembly The promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet

1 Emphasizing that access to information on the Internet facilitates vast

opportunities for affordable and inclusive education globally, thereby being
an important tool to facilitate the promotion of the right to education, while
underlining the need to address digital literacy and the digital divide, as it affects
the enjoyment of the right to education.

2 Stressing the importance of empowering all women and girls by enhancing their
access to information and communications technology, promoting digital literacy
and the participation of women and girls in education and training on information
and communications technology, and encouraging women and girls to embark on
careers in the sciences and information and communications technology.

a year written off

In late July 2020, a parent from Kashmir tweeted an image of a schoolboy’s plain white shirt on a
hanger. It had been stitched in the summer of 2019, as part of a young boy’s school uniform, and
readied in anticipation of a school term opening. “The Kid has grown up without even wearing this
shirt, this happens only in Kashmir?” the parent had noted in anguish.

For students of all ages in Kashmir, the first anniversary of the internet shutdown in August 2020
marked the end of a full year without school, or college or university. This was unprecedented even
by the miserably low standards of Kashmir, where students, teachers and institutions have learnt
to cope with frequent disruptions to the educational calendar. In 2017, schools had been shut for
several months following a wave of student protests against a violent raid on a college campus
in Pulwama; in 2016, they were closed consequent to the wide-spread protests that followed
the killing of the militant commander Burhan Wani; in 2014, schooling stopped when massive
and widespread floods caused a disruption for months across the valley. Going back even earlier,
each of the years 2010, 2009, and 2008 were marked by long periods of mass protests, with
educational institutions closed for weeks at a time.

As in any armed conflict, decades of political violence in Kashmir have had a devastating
impact on Kashmir’s children and youth, and on their fundamental rights. Adolescents and
young people have been at the forefront of the new phase of public protests that began in
2008, and adolescent boys, profiled and criminalised as “stone pelters,” have faced the brunt
of the state’s violent crackdowns. They have been subject to unlawful detentions, torture and
the use of disproportionate force, including mass-blindings and maiming caused by shotgun
pellets. Meanwhile, young women and girls have been targets of sexual violence, trafficking and
harassment. High School and university campuses are sites of intense surveillance and state
violence including raids, targeted tear gas shelling, and pellet gun firing during protests. Cultural
and Islamic studies scholar Idrisa Pandit writes1, “Kashmir’s children of war have grown up under

1 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330895933_Kashmir%27s_Children_of_War_Understanding_Youth_Resistance_in_a_Global_Context

40
 the shadow of the gun, enduring tremendous trauma and pain. Since the early years of the militant
uprising in the 1990s, youth have played a crucial role in resistance to Indian occupation. They
have been advocates for change as well as targets of state-sponsored violence.”

This time around, the shutdown of schools, colleges and universities was precipitated by the
abrogation of Article 370, and stayed in place for nine months, reopening only at the end of
February 2020. A month later, just as they had finally sputtered to a start amidst the winter
cold, India’s Prime Minister Modi called for a nationwide lockdown on account of the Covid-19
pandemic, and educational institutions were closed once again.

All across the world, the Covid-19 pandemic had seen educational institutions shifting online.
With video calling services (such as Zoom, Skype, Google Meet), as well as online repositories
(JSTOR2, Oxford University Press3) making their services free (if only for a fixed period of
time), online teaching got an unexpected boost. International organizations like UNESCO have
further introduced programs like the Global Education Coalition4 to facilitate remote access for
education. Globally, access is meant to be freely available for teachers, to assist them in their
efforts to move online.

The internet is undoubtedly an essential educational infrastructure in any context, for it is the
base of almost all virtual learning. The same cannot be said for the approximately 30,000 schools5
and 400 institutions of higher education6 in Jammu & Kashmir, which are all systematically
denied access to the internet. Globally, teachers and professors began sending assignments and
homework, and even setting exams, online. While the shift online has been rocky for many, since
all do not have equal access to the internet, or to smartphones, the problems in Kashmir have
been compounded by the prolonged and unpredictable nature of the shutdown, and are therefore
of a different order.

INTERNET DISABILITY
When the restriction on mobile internet was lifted on 26 January 2020, it brought a “tentative
end to the world’s longest internet shutdown in a democracy.”7 The internet services restored
were however both intermittent as well as restricted by the bandwidth provided. As teachers in
the region took to holding classes over WhatsApp they have met with varying degrees of success.
Classes happening in real time are still patchy and easily interrupted, with many students forced
to guess what the teacher is saying. “This happens regularly. Sometimes the screen of my phone
turns blank and at times even the audio is erratic,” eleven-year-old Waseem told The Wire8. Of the
21 students from his class only eight had joined the online classes. Other students, he reported,
simply don’t have smartphones at home. In an online video made to demand the restoration of 4G
services, one teacher spoke about the problems of holding online classes via Facebook: “While we
were in the middle of a class, a student kept repeatedly saying that he can neither see the board
nor hear my voice clearly,” the teacher told The Wire. “I felt so helpless, but there was hardly
anything I could have done.”

Holding classes online makes it harder to hold the interest of students, since it becomes a one-
sided interaction for the most part. Younger students, or those unfamiliar with online applications,
have to be additionally trained, and in some cases, their parents as well. Meanwhile there is
pressure put on teachers to ensure that the syllabus is completed in time and that exams are held.

2 https://about.jstor.org/covid19/
3 https://global.oup.com/about/Covid-19
4 https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-rallies-international-organizations-civil-society-and-private-sector-partners-broad
5 http://righttoeducation.in/resources/states/jammu-and-kashmir
6 https://www.mhrd.gov.in/educational-statistics-glance-2018
7 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/world/asia/kashmir-internet-shutdown-india.html
8 https://thewire.in/education/kashmir-2g-online-classes

41
 As a result few students learn well, if they learn at all.

One option to real-time classes was to post lectures on YouTube, but even here teachers
succeeded only with much effort and time, with the slow internet speed proving particularly
irksome. “I record a video of 10 minutes and the uploading … is taking place in 3-4 hours,”
Jahangir Ahmad, a private school teacher who had been asked to record teaching videos by
his school administration told The Diplomat9. Uploading and sharing a 30-minute video for his
students took five days.

In April 2020 Prateek Waghre undertook a “theoretical comparison”10 between 2G and 4G

network speeds while comparing the completion of common tasks on the internet. He also
analysed the effect that 2G can have on video streaming (broadcast) and video conferencing
(interactive) applications. He performed these tests to demonstrate the difference in user
experience on 2G and 4G speeds “in the context of the mandated internet speed restrictions in

the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir in India.” Based on ‘observed’ 2G speeds, tasks could
take 50 times as long. Even when users lowered the settings of the platforms observed (including
YouTube) to the lowest recommended levels, these settings proved to be higher than the speeds
made available (both at the ‘observed’ 2G speed and the ‘theoretical peak’ 2G speed), resulting
in significant quality degradation. This degradation is also expected in applications like Zoom and
Skype, and worsen with multitasking, the report said. Most applications currently written presume
upon higher speeds, which means that there is a higher likelihood of a server timeout if too much
time is taken to download content. (Waghre’s paper was also referred to in the case of Foundation
for Media Professionals v UT of Jammu & Kashmir & Another, which is currently being heard in the
Supreme Court.)

Students and faculty members pursuing online courses from various platforms that offer Distance
Learning were also severely disadvantaged. While an encouraging array of learning options were
available via the ‘massive open online courses’ (MOOCs), access still seemed remote. Mudasir
Ahmad, from Anantnag, told The Diplomat11 that he is not able to watch the video lessons on
the Swayam Central platform due to continuous buffering caused by low internet speed: a 10-
15 minute video takes about 45 minutes to watch, he said. (Swayam12 is an initiative by the
Government of India, “designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy
viz., access, equity and quality. The objective of this effort is to take the best teaching learning
resources to all, including the most disadvantaged.”)

Recognizing the problem of slow internet, the Education Department in Kashmir began audio
classes in collaboration with All India Radio, and tele-classes with Doordarshan Kashir.
Unfortunately, these provide an even lower level of interaction than that offered by a virtual

9 https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/as-life-moves-online-amid-the-pandemic-kashmiri-education-is-being-left-behind
10 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3580803
11 https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/as-life-moves-online-amid-the-pandemic-kashmiri-education-is-being-left-behind
12 https://swayam.gov.in

42
 classroom, and are more in the nature of supplemental lectures or teaching aids, rather than a
substitute for synchronous teaching and learning. As of now, these 90 minute classes, broadcast
daily, carry the impossible burden of providing education for all age groups and for all subjects.

Competitive exams scheduled to be held after March 2020 have mostly been shifted online as
well. These online exams can stretch over many hours, and to avoid disruptions require a stable
internet connection throughout. This is simply not possible with the current internet service
in J&K. During earlier internet shutdowns, students could choose an examination centre in a
relatively more ‘stable’ location13 (Jammu City, for instance), but in post Covid-19 times, this
seems less than feasible.

13 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/were-in-the-stone-age-say-kashmir-students-on-internet-shut-down/article30653509.ece

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43
DIGITAL REFUGEES
To protect their children from the deprivations and upheavals of living in a perpetual conflict,
a significant number of parents in Kashmir are compelled to send them outside the region for
schooling14. Many college students and research scholars also migrate to India and abroad seeking
a stable and undisrupted education, and access to opportunities. This displacement from their
homes and separation from families is premised on the implicit acknowledgement that life in
Kashmir is subject to constant violence, interruptions and curfews, and cannot provide a nurturing
environment for a student. Some parents are also reluctant to keep their children home for
fear of violence, which is often especially directed against the youth. Adolescents are therefore
forced to make an impossibly hard choice at an early age, between continuing to stay with their
family, or pursuing better career options elsewhere. These students must contend not only with
interruptions in communications, but with the underlying fear of the uncertain.

As the Covid-19 pandemic forced educational institutes across India to physically close their
doors, many Kashmiri students found themselves having to go back home. This population
included undergraduate students, research scholars in various fields, as well as those preparing
for competitive exams. These students suddenly found themselves having to continue their
courses on a new platform, but at an unenviable disadvantage. While their counterparts elsewhere
are able to submit assignments and write exams online, students at home in Kashmir are hobbled
with 2G internet speeds, and the threat of frequent disruptions, and without notice, as First
Post15 reported. In cities, areas with approved broadband services are relatively better served
than those relying exclusively on mobile internet. But Kashmiri students are now at a competitive
disadvantage with a cohort across India who are able to participate in seminars and events, and
even manage internships and work responsibilities on the side.

FISH OUT OF WATER: SCHOLARS AND RESEARCHERS

For graduate students, or those pursuing research, high speed internet is an essential tool,
especially when access to physical libraries is restricted. Methods used earlier to circumvent
the internet problem are also unusable now (travelling to other areas to access the syllabi and
resources, ferrying in hard drives with necessary content). In order to avail of the fixed line internet
services on campus, Kashmir University made research scholars and university staff sign bonds.
Amongst the conditions it laid down, there was to be no social networking, no use of VPNs, and
no encrypted files to be uploaded or downloaded. Additionally, the username of the person using
the service would be linked to their usage, and violation of the conditions would result in a bar on
internet access on campus for them.

Those working in the sciences have been hit especially hard, since they are unable to keep
themselves updated on their fields. In a fiercely competitive market this could have adverse
effects on their future employability. Those attempting to register for higher education institutions
are also facing difficulties in accessing university websites and in uploading documents online. The
overall impact of it all could be students turning away from fields they see as difficult to pursue
(such as computer technology). A report in Times of India16 detailed the travails of conducting
scholarly and advanced research work amidst a digital siege. Shunaid, who has completed a year
of his doctoral studies in nanotechnology at the Kashmir University, described how the internet
shutdown brought his work to a sudden halt. “I have also completed the first year of a project for
Dept of Science and Technology. Only if I submit the progress report will I get the funding for the
second year,” he told the Times of India. Shunaid tried the Tourist Reception Centre, Srinagar,

14 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/students-prefer-to-study-outside-amid-unrest-in-kashmir/story-iViiAJlOLkWLpp9LJ78KJJ.html
15 https://www.firstpost.com/india/in-kashmir-internet-shutdown-cripples-study-of-phd-students-research-scholars-many-lose-out-on-grants-fellowships-7833921.html
16 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/how-internet-shutdown-has-hurt-students-in-kashmir/articleshow/73356950.cms

44
 where the internet could be accessed to check mail: “A policeman would be stationed there. He
would decide on whether to grant permission to access the net for 10 minutes. Mostly, if you had
to download a roll number or something.” Shunaid eventually travelled 400 km to Ladakh to check
the status of two manuscripts that he had sent to a peer-reviewed scientific journal in solid-state
physics. For a five-day stay in Ladakh in September, Shunaid spent over Rs 25,000. Without the
internet, a research scholar is like “a fish out of water” he said, and described how the commercial
software he uses for his nanotech course-work needs to be annually renewed. The licence renewal
certificate lay idle in his email, which he could not access. Even his offline work went poorly.

Not just scholars, professors helming research projects and guiding advanced students were
adversely impacted too. “Look at the irony,” said M Tariq Banday, who has taught in KU since 2002,
and currently heads the department of electronics: “I am an investigator for a [Government of
India] project of almost Rs 50 lakh on cryptography security solutions for the Internet of Things.
How am I supposed to work?” Calling the suspension of the web the worst thing to happen in
the Valley in the last 20 to 30 years, Banday detailed how in the field of electronics “everything is
obsolete within six months.” He notes wryly, “I have lost six months.”

The Diplomat17 reported that many scholars who were ready for the submission or final
presentation of their research work encountered problems in communicating with their advisors
and research supervisors, throwing years of work into jeopardy. One such user said that he
received a WhatsApp message from his supervisor one morning asking him to send a chapter of
his thesis by email. Arif says, “I tried to open Gmail on my laptop but it was responding with a
temporary error. Finally, after 3 hours, I was able to mail him the entire document.”

While it is important to assess the internet shutdown in terms of the economic impact it has had on
the region, a larger understanding requires an assessment of its socio-political effects, especially
on already vulnerable populations. The young people in Kashmir are an example of a group that
has lived through situations of extreme stress and uncertainty. Having missed out on a year of
schooling, they find themselves trying to catch up now, but without access to an essential service.
Even as the entire world rallies together to share ways to work through the pandemic, Kashmir
finds itself sidelined from the world, its citizens conspicuous by their absence online.

17 https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/as-life-moves-online-amid-the-pandemic-kashmiri-education-is-being-left-behind

45
COURT RULING
A month after the shutdown in Kashmir began, the High Court of Kerala pronounced a
constitutional judgment18 that acknowledged the vital role that the internet plays in access to
education. “When the Human Rights Council of the United Nations has found that the right of
access to Internet is a fundamental freedom and a tool to ensure right to education, a rule or
instruction which impairs the said right of the students cannot be permitted to stand in the eye
of law,” it held. In sharp contrast the J&K administration’s response19 to the petition filed in the
Supreme Court by the Foundation for Media Professionals, challenging the throttling of internet
speeds in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, takes the position “that the right to access the
internet is not a fundamental right.” The rejoinder further elaborates that “internet is an enabler of
rights and not a right in itself and that the present 2G speed of internet does enable one to create,
access, utilize and share information and knowledge.”

Lawyer Salman Khurshid, appearing for the Private Schools Association of J&K, submitted that the
current speed restrictions have affected online education, The Wire20 reported. “Private schools
are under government directions to provide education via video-conferencing. We have obligation
under Right to Education Act to provide education” he said, pointing out how students are being
deprived of access to education during the lockdown.

The Centre and the J&K administration justified the restrictions by citing the threat of terrorism.
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said only fixed-line internet was permitted because “we can keep
check on who is giving information and disseminating terrorist propaganda,” adding that the move
was a “policy decision” in which the court should not interfere.

18 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/188439981
19 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PXpflHeGKkjLjuQ53-R6_G5IAdW5F169/view
20 https://thewire.in/law/supreme-court-jammu-kashmir-4g-internet-special-committee

46
Quratulain Rehbar started her MA in journalism from Central University, Kashmir in 2016, when internet services
were snapped in the valley for close to five months. On July 8 that year Hizb-ul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani
was killed by Indian forces, resulting in the government imposing major restrictions on movement and commu-
nication. “We were journalism students, we don’t just read a textbook. We research things online, go for YouTube
lectures. It was a huge problem,” says Quratulain.

The shutdown had a huge impact on her: eventually her final year college project was on the digital shutdowns in
the valley. “In Pulwama, where I come from, and South Kashmir in general, there are a lot of internet shutdowns,”
she says. “Even before August 5th, 2019, Pulwama has had some of the highest number of internet shutdowns in
Kashmir. Whenever there is a gun fight, the internet is shut down.”

The real sting, though, came with the blackout in 2019, after the revocation of Article 370. Quratulain had just
left her job at The Kashmirwala, where she had worked for nearly a year, to become a freelance journalist. “As a
journalist, you need to do research,” she says, “you need to study the background. Especially when it comes to
Kashmir. It is a conflict ridden area and when you do a story for an international publication, they need to know
the background of the conflict.”

This became impossible, as journalists could access the internet only at the government created Media centre.
There were never enough terminals, journalists complained, and very close surveillance. “I would have to tell pub-
lications that we have no internet here and the only information I can send is what I can access on the ground–I
can’t research. People sometimes think the reporter doesn’t want to work hard. It’s really bad for your credibility

QURATULAIN REHBAR
as a journalist,” says Quratulain.
SPEAKING WITH AB

Over the last year, there has been a serious clampdown on journalists. One example is Qazi Shibli, who runs the
online portal The Kashmiriyat. He was first arrested in July 2019 for a period of 9 months, and then, a few months
after his release, he was again detained in July 2020. Others like photojournalist Masrat Zahra were booked under
the draconian UAPA, and many other journalists were also called in for questioning. Meanwhile a new media policy
was announced in 2020–among other restrictions, it authorises government officers to decide on what is “fake
news” and take action against journalists.

“The state says they ban internet because access to the internet is what results in the spreading of rumours. It’s
actually the opposite. When there is no flow of information, that’s when rumours spread,” says Quratulain, whose
work has been featured in publications such as The Wire, The Caravan and Huffington Post.

This censorship has resulted in a major clash of narratives, with the mainstream Indian media reporting only the
official state position, and limiting the circulations of reports from the ground, and produced by local journalists.
Against these odds, journalists like Quratulain continue to do their jobs with diligence, using a host of VPNs, finding
ways to verify information, and keeping their ear to the ground.

“Since August 5th, I have done a lot of work... around 20-25 stories on human rights violations. I did ground reports
from SMHS Hospital–I was there for 4-5 days continuously. I saw torture victims coming in, pellet victims would
come there. I compiled everything and made a report,” she says. “Whenever there were instances of torture, it
was very difficult for journalists to reach immediately. Families would keep things saved–there was an instance of
torture in Shopian, so his mother had taken pictures to keep a record. Since there was no internet, when reporters
went the family passed on pictures through ShareIt.” This Chinese origin app, which allows transfer of media with-
out internet, has since been banned after the July 2020 border stand-off between India and China.
47
 AC
CE
SS
TO
JUS

48
TICE
international article 2-3
covenant on civil 1 To ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized

and political rights are violated shall have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the
violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity.

2 To ensure that any person claiming such a remedy shall have his right
thereto determined by competent judicial, administrative or legislative
authorities, or by any other competent authority provided for by the legal
system of the State, and to develop the possibilities of judicial remedy.

3 To ensure that the competent authorities shall enforce such remedies

when granted.

mass detentions amidst shutdown

In September 2019, an all-woman fact-finding team from India visited Kashmir and reported1 that
in the run-up to August 5th, and in the weeks immediately after, an estimated 13,000 Kashmiris2,
many of them teenagers, were picked up from their homes and arbitrarily detained by police
and armed forces, often in midnight raids. There was frequently no record of their arrest, and
authorities remained tight-lipped about the numbers taken into custody as well as the legal
basis for their detentions. J&K government spokesman Rohit Kansal could only confirm that
more than 100 local politicians, activists and academics were detained in the first few days after
the lockdown began, and said there was “no centralised figure”3 for the total number of people
detained. The detenus included three former chief ministers of J&K State: Farooq Abdullah,
Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti. On November 20th 2019, Parliament was informed by the
Government of India that “5,161 persons were detained since August 5th out of whom 609 were
[still] under detention while rest were released.” There was no official statement on how many
were booked under the Public Safety Act, 1978 (PSA) a widely criticised preventive detention law
that permits imprisonment without charges or trial. Data obtained by JKCCS4, showed that 662
fresh PSA detentions were registered in 2019, two-thirds of them after August 5th, 2019.

“Most of the people arrested were from poor families and did not know what they had to do once
their relative was arrested,” Habeel Iqbal, a lawyer practicing at the Shopian District Court told
researchers from JKCCS5 about those arrested after August 5th, 2019. “A key document for those
detained under the PSA is the Detention Order containing the charges, and for it to be challenged
in court, it has to first be accessed from the District Commissioner’s office. Contacting a lawyer
was impossible amidst the lockdown, especially for those living in rural areas, and in the absence
of public transport so was going to Srinagar to find legal representation,” Iqbal added.

1 https://countercurrents.org/2019/09/all-woman-team-releases-fact-finding-report-on-kashmir
2 https://www.newsclick.in/99%25-Habeas-Corpus-Filed-Jammu-Kashmir-HC-August-2019-Pending
3 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/190819/at-least-4000-detained-over-fears-of-unrest-most-flown-out-of-region.html
4 http://jkccs.net/annual-human-rights-review-2019-2
5 Telephone interview / Habeel Iqbal / 03.05.2020

49
 The mass incommunicado detentions of children and young adults, the absence of access to news
and information about their names, locations or numbers, combined with the lack of means to
contact lawyers or judicial or law enforcement officials, created widespread panic. In Kashmir
this has a particular edge given the decades-long history of systemic enforced disappearances,
and torture and custodial killings6. Despite the shutdown, accounts of ill treatment and torture of
detainees circulated by word of mouth, further heightening fears and anxiety. A crucial safeguard
against violations of prisoners’ rights, which are routinely flouted with impunity7 in Kashmir, are the
rules regarding the physical production of under-trials and detainees before a Magistrate twenty-
four hours after an arrest. Because of the restrictions on mobility, absence of court staff and court
closures, these too were temporarily suspended, Kashmir Life8 reported.

In a report submitted to the Indian Supreme Court, which was hearing a constitutional petition on
child rights, the Juvenile Justice Committee of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court submitted (on
the basis of a police report) that as many as 144 children were taken into police custody, including
86 into “preventive” custody, in violation of juvenile justice and criminal procedure laws. Some
of the children in question were as young as nine years old. Despite this admission, the police
report questioned “why reports from foreign media and digital media networks carried stories of
allegations of arrest and torture of children which were not there in local media.” The Juvenile
Justice Committee was asked to file a fresh report by the Supreme Court. The Petition was
eventually dismissed by the Supreme Court, stating that they were satisfied that there were no
instances of illegal detentions of minors.

With a blackout of independent media, and an absence of judicial remedies, those deprived of
their liberty were held hostage by the state, with no means to effectively challenge their detentions
or in some cases even send word to their families. Hearings for bail and for pending criminal trials
were indefinitely delayed in the early weeks, thereby denying the right to habeas corpus, fair trial
and due process.

Amongst the first people arrested after the lockdown were lawyers, including the President of J&K
High Court Bar Association, Mian Abdul Qayoom, and its former president, Nazir Ahmad Ronga.
Also booked under the PSA were Fayad Sodagar, president of Anantnag District Bar Association,
and Abdul Salam Rather, president of the Baramulla District Bar Association, Scroll9 reported. Mian
Abdul Qayoom, who handled innumerable PSA cases as a lawyer, was himself arrested on the
night of 4th August 2019, booked under PSA, and spirited away to Agra Jail the next day. On 30th
January 2020, Mian Qayoom suffered a cardiac arrest while in Agra jail, and after a short time in a
local hospital, the 76-year-old was moved to Delhi’s Tihar jail.

The members of the High Court Bar Association went on a protest strike against the detentions of
these prominent lawyers, Al Jazeera10 reported, though a specially appointed group of lawyers
continued to appear in urgent matters concerning deprivation of liberty. The arrests of lawyers

The mass, incommunicado detentions of children and young adults,

the absence of access to news and information about their names,
locations or numbers, combined with the lack of means to contact lawyers
or judicial or law enforcement officials, created widespread panic,
particularly given the decades-long history of systemic enforced
disappearances, torture and custodial killings in Kashmir.

6 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf
7 https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/Intellectual_Life/Kashmir_MythofNormalcy.pdf
8 https://kashmirlife.net/justice-delayed-issue-34-vol-11-219671
9 https://scroll.in/article/937856/even-as-thousands-are-detained-in-kashmir-courts-and-legal-system-remain-frozen
10 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/crackdown-lawyers-shrinks-road-justice-kashmir-190920073101403.html

50
 nonetheless had a chilling effect on the legal community’s ability to approach the courts,
compounding the problems of those seeking legal redress. In November, 2019, the Bar Council
and Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales wrote a letter11 to Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, expressing concerns about the state of “near collapse” of the justice system in
Kashmir in the context of widespread alleged rights violations—including the illegal detentions of
senior lawyers of the Jammu & Kashmir bar. They urged the Indian state to allow independent
investigators entry into Kashmir to ensure accountability for its actions under international law,
and to take urgent steps to lift all restrictions, restore internet and communications, and publish
the names of all individuals, including lawyers who have been detained.

ISOLATION OF UNDERTRIALS
After August 5th 2019, at least 300 people were arrested under PSA. Most of these detenus
were sent to jails across the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (Agra, Bareilly) and some to
Haryana, Hindustan Times12 reported. Meanwhile families who were aware of their arrest and
imprisonment, were completely in the dark about where they were taken. Due to a complete
communication shutdown, families could not make enquiries, and neither could the imprisoned
call their families to inform them about where they were taken. Many could not meet their relatives
in jails for months, First Post13 reported.

Undertrials are required to appear in court on each date of the hearing, but since many were taken
to jails far away from the courts, they were simply not produced, leading to repeated deferments
of hearings. Some judges started video conferencing to ensure the undertrial is virtually present
in court. Although video-conferencing of cases has helped ensure speedier trials, judges cannot
physically verify the wellbeing of the prisoner. Aside from this, families no longer have the
opportunity to meet under-trials when they are brought to court. During the internet shutdown, even
when video conferencing happened on the court’s own leased line, it was frequently ridden with
technical difficulties. In a habeas corpus petition filed for Mian Qayoom, the High Court itself noted
the difficulties in conducting hearings of complicated matters. Live Law14 reported: “We, while sitting
at two different places through Video Conferencing, faced great difficulty in the process of hearing
the matter via Video Conferencing. Despite that being the position, we were continuing to hear the
parties, but Mr B. A. Dar, learned Senior Additional Advocate General, got disconnected on account

11 https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/justice-system-in-kashmir-in-a-state-of-near-collapse-uk-lawyers-body-write-to-pm-read-letter-150034
12 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/234-prisoners-from-jammu-and-kashmir-in-up-jails-27-in-haryana-prisons-govt-tells-rajya-sabha/story-cMMXGYpZDj1mDdqbQqKhiJ.html
13 https://www.firstpost.com/india/in-bareilly-jail-i-was-the-guardian-of-all-kashmiris-says-journalist-qazi-shibli-after-9-months-of-detention-under-psa-8310161.html
14 https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/jk-hc-difficult-to-conduct-vc-hearing-due-to-poor-connectivity-notes-concerns-of-government-counsel-expressing-lack-of-vc-facility-156275

51
 of poor connectivity.” On another occasion, Chief Justice Gita Mittal too noted15 the unreliability of
internet connectivity while appearing in a webinar: “I had to come to the court to make sure today’s
webinar is delivered from my end as connection is a problem otherwise.”

The communication blockade also compromised the transparency and efficiency of the court
process due to the reliance on private electronic communications between Court registries and
litigants/lawyers, rather than through the established public filing and electronic listing system.
Asifa Shah, wife of Mubeen Shah, a civil society activist detained on August 4th 2019, filed a
Habeas Corpus Petition in the Supreme Court for his release. She was unaware, The Wire16
reported, that the Jammu & Kashmir High Court had already been approached by another relative
– via e-mail. The Supreme Court dismissed her Petition asking the High Court to decide the
case “expeditiously.” For two months the case was not heard, while Shah’s health continued to
deteriorate. Finally, the relative withdrew the case pending in the High Court, and Asifa Shah filed
a fresh Petition in the Supreme Court. Mubeen Shah was finally released in December 2019 after
the government revoked his detention order, and just prior to his Supreme Court hearing, Indian
Express17 reported.

ROUTINE COURT PROCEDURE TRIPPED UP

Not all of the cases that found themselves in limbo were directly connected to the abrogation of
Article 370, or the events flowing from it. As in any legal system, a large proportion of civil litigation
in Kashmir is related to claims for spousal maintenance and child support payments. “Many of the
women who file these cases are extremely poor and need the intervention of the court to receive
their money,” lawyer Habeel Iqbal pointed out. With husbands and fathers frequently defaulting

on their payments, and the court system paralysed, women and children dependent on monthly
maintenance payments suffered.

With the snapping of internet and phone services it follows that lawyers and their clients lost
communications. But it was more than that, for the court’s dependence on the internet has grown
in recent years. Even at the level of the District Courts lawyers make substantial use of the
e-courts platform18. Once a case is filed, the application provides all the details, and an automated
SMS intimates the plaintiff (as well as the lawyer). It also provides basic details of the case along
with the next date of hearing. Although most of these processes came to a standstill with the
communications lockdown, it is important to note that a few of the procedural parts of the Court
were made operational after only three weeks. “In Shopian, where I work, and which is considered
a most volatile region, Judges did sit in court 20-25 days after 5th August,” Habeel Iqbal pointed
out to JKCCS researchers19, “mainly because police had made arrests and they had to report them
in front of a judicial magistrate.”

Families who were aware of their arrest and imprisonment,

were completely in the dark about where they were taken.
Due to a complete communication shutdown, families could
not make enquiries, and neither could the imprisoned call their
families to inform them about where they were taken.
Many families could not meet their relatives in jails for months.

15 https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/access-to-justice-cannot-be-understood-to-mean-access-to-courts-justice-gita-mittal-145678
16 https://thewire.in/communalism/supreme-court-asks-jk-hc-to-expeditiously-decide-plea-on-detention
17 https://indianexpress.com/article/india/businessmans-detention-under-psa-revoked-by-jk-admin-6159007
18 http://jkhighcourt.nic.in/index.php
19 Telephone interview / Habeel Iqbal / 03.05.2020

52
 The digital siege affected the Jammu & Kashmir High Court with equal severity. The website of
every High Court publishes a weekly and daily ‘Cause-list’, which provides a list of cases to be
heard by the court on the following day or week. It informs the parties involved in a case (along
with their lawyers) about the bench that will hear their case, the court in which it would be heard,
and the order in which cases would proceed. After the internet shutdown in August 2019, the
manner in which lawyers and litigants interacted with the courts was seriously disrupted. Multiple
photocopies of the cause-list were printed, and simply placed on a desk in court for all lawyers
to access. Supplementary matters, which were not listed in the cause-list, were made available
on the notice board of the High Court. The J&K High Court also has a virtual display board which
provides a real time display of matters being heard in each court room. Post the internet shutdown
even this critical function of the court became redundant. Orders and judgments passed by courts,
which were previously uploaded regularly on the high court website, also stopped. The problem
was made more acute by “the nearly dysfunctional postal service which the legal system relies on
heavily” Al Jazeera20 reported. “In habeas corpus cases, we have to send notices to the state and
jail authorities. How do we do that when the administration has shut down the post offices services
in the Valley?” an advocate representing those arrested from Bandipora district told reporters.

Three weeks after the lockdown, the New Delhi based Indian Express21 carried a startling analysis
of the workings of the J&K Courts. A scrutiny of orders in all cases heard between August 5th and
August 26th, and accessed by their reporters from the e-court platform22, revealed a telling pattern.
Of the 288 cases where orders were passed, petitioners were not present in 256 cases, and
respondents were missing in 235 cases. In at least 38 cases Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice
Rashid Ali Dar could not even receive case files. The main explanation, the analysis revealed, was
that “due to restrictions on the movement of traffic in the State, counsel for the parties were not
available.” In only three cases did the appellant appear before the court, and in only one case
did the petitioner manage to appear. Hearings were deferred in over 70 per cent of the cases, to
dates in either October or November 2019. Even as the state sought to establish the narrative of

J&K High Court - Orders in Cases Heard - Aug 5 to Aug 26 2019

ORDERS PASSED
288
PETITIONERS NOT PRESENT
256
RESPONDENTS MISSING
235
38 CASE FILES NOT RECEIVED

3 APPELLANTS APPEAR BEFORE THE COURT

1 PETITIONER APPEARS BEFORE THE COURT

DATA SOURCE
Indian Express, Apurva Vishwanath, Kaunain Sheriff M, 27/09/2019
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/in-interest-of-justice-justice-postponed-in-jammu-kashmir-high-court-5939711

20 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/crackdown-lawyers-shrinks-road-justice-kashmir-190920073101403.html
21 https://indianexpress.com/article/india/in-interest-of-justice-justice-postponed-in-jammu-kashmir-high-court-5939711
22 http://jkhighcourt.nic.in/index.php

53
 normalcy, the issue became highly contested. The High Court had been disposing of cases daily,
India Today23 reported, countering accounts by Petitioners to the Supreme Court who maintained
that the Courts were dysfunctional and inaccessible. The Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi
eventually passed orders in September 2019, seeking clarity on whether courts were functional,
Economic Times24 reported and the High Court later filed a report which stated that the courts
were hearing matters. (The full report was not made public).

Despite these assertions by the state, reports from the situation on the ground continued to be
dismal. In November 2019, Kashmir Life25 quoted court officials as stating that only 1438 new
cases were filed in the High Court Srinagar from August 5th until November 17th, 2019, including
1069 civil cases and 369 Habeas Corpus petitions relating to illegal detentions. Detailing the
immense problems faced by litigants, it mentioned that a “hot line” to the Chief Justice had been
set up to deal with urgent issues, and that only four courts were fully functional. In June 2020,
Newsclick26 reported, the Bar Association of Jammu & Kashmir at Srinagar made a representation
to the Chief Justice of the High Court, apprising her of the continuing difficulties faced by lawyers
and litigants after August 5th, and stating that 99% of Habeas Corpus petitions pertaining to the
illegal detentions after that date remained pending due to the constant delays.

COVID-19 LOCKDOWN
“The Covid pandemic and the ensuing highly militarised lockdown in Kashmir added a further layer
of challenges to access to justice in Kashmir. All court complexes in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh
were initially ordered to be closed for a 21 day period, and a circular asked the Principal District
and Sessions Judges to make arrangements for hearing of any exceptionally urgent civil or criminal
matter from the residence of designated judicial officers,” the Indian Express27 said. With regard
to regular hearings of civil, criminal and appellate matters at both trial courts and High Courts the
circular stated that, “The hearings shall be on the virtual mode only.” Covid lockdown measures
were eased gradually in May 2020 and thereafter reinstated in July 2020, but the full physical
functioning of courts has still not resumed, leaving lawyers and litigants dependent on low speed
internet to access the courts.

In the initial period, lawyers could file applications via WhatsApp message to the judicial
registrar or in accordance with detailed guidelines for other modes of electronic filing. Once the
application was sent in the requisite format, the registrar decided if the matter was urgent. If
they were considered urgent, lawyers were called and told when their matter would be listed.
“Any convenient mode is allowed to send petitions or arguments which includes SMS, e-mail,
WhatsApp, video conference calls,” lawyer Habeel Iqbal told JKCCS researchers28: “In order to
argue the matter, lawyers can either call the judge and argue over the phone, or send an audio
or video of their arguments. But this has certainly affected the adversarial form of justice.” Altaf

23 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/jammu-and-kashmir-high-court-disposing-off-cases-1593258-2019-08-30
24 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/jk-hc-report-does-not-support-claims-on-inability-to-access-court-there-says-sc/articleshow/71213903.cms?from=mdr
25 https://kashmirlife.net/justice-delayed-issue-34-vol-11-219671
26 https://www.newsclick.in/99%25-Habeas-Corpus-Filed-Jammu-Kashmir-HC-August-2019-Pending
27 https://indianexpress.com/article/coronavirus/all-court-complexes-in-jammu-kashmir-ladakh-closed-till-april-14-6333404
28 Telephone interview / Habeel Iqbal / 03.05.2020

54
 Khan, a practicing lawyer in the J&K High court, told JKCCS researchers29 that despite a circular
stating that urgent matters must be heard during the Covid-19 lockdown, the courts and registry
were disinclined to list and hear urgent liberty related cases, citing the example of a bail plea from
Budgam, which the court had declined to hear on the grounds it was not urgent.

The wide discretion given to the court registry to decide on matters of urgency, and the lack of
internet access restricted the ability of lawyers to make representations. There was also the
problem of presenting complex legal arguments and applications over a messaging service, with
no opportunity for synchronous engagements with the opposite party, court or registry officials. As
the Covid lockdown was eased, courts were partially re-opened, although with social distancing
norms. The J&K High Court Bar Association wrote to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
India in June 2020, Newsclick30 reported, stating that “Because of restrictions of operation of 4G
in J&K, it is very difficult to argue the matters through virtual mode, though an option is given to
the counsel to appear before the Court. The lawyers whose cases are listed are allowed to enter
the court premises but their clerks and juniors are not allowed disabling the lawyers to assist the
courts properly.” This situation was further exacerbated by the frequent internet shutdowns in
different parts of the valley.

Significantly, during the Covid lockdown the High Court has itself expressed considerable
difficulties in its functioning, and has intervened on the issue of the limited e-connectivity of
courts. This is in contrast to its role during the post August 5th period, where it maintained that
courts were functional. Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal in a hearing regarding
non-availability of routers in Udhampur court observed that, “the availability of e-connectivity to
the courts is an issue of ensuring access to justice to the citizens.31” This report also noted that
internet service provider BSNL had sent a letter to the Department of Justice in November 2019
on the need for VSAT facilities for 10 sites but had received no response. The court now directed
BSNL to install the converter and router in the Udhampur court, and also asked for a fresh report

from BSNL on the status of providing e-connectivity to courts in the Union Territories of Jammu &
Kashmir and Ladakh.

The issue of low internet speed affecting access to justice was also taken up suo moto by the
J&K High Court, The New Indian Express32 reported, when the Chief Justice summoned Home
Secretary Shaleen Kabra to appear before a bench and apprise it of the impact of the restrictions
on e-connectivity of courts. The court remarked that that “despite best efforts on the part of our
IT experts, it has been impossible today to have even a bare semblance of a hearing.” The division
bench noted that access to justice is a fundamental right “and cannot be impeded.”

29 Telephone interview / Altaf Khan / 29.03.2020

30 https://www.newsclick.in/99%25-Habeas-Corpus-Filed-Jammu-Kashmir-HC-August-2019-Pending
31 https://theprint.in/judiciary/e-connectivity-necessary-for-access-to-justice-amid-covid-19-jammu-kashmir-high-court/437202
32 https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/jul/14/jammu-and-kashmir-hc-summons-home-secretary-over-poor-internet-speed-2169724.html

55
Khytul Abyad is a 27-year-old artist from Islamabad town in southern Kashmir. “Do you remember the rumours
about war in the time leading up to 5th August, 2019?” asks Khytul. “What I did was, I brought all my art work,
stacked it, wrapped it in a piece of cloth. Then I stored it in an old trunk. I wrote a note with it, saying ‘I don’t know
if anybody is ever going to see this but this is here and this is my treasure’.” Khytul’s art turned distinctly political
after 2016; as she puts it, “when all I could see around was violence, people getting shot, people getting blinded.”
“Before 2016, I would draw and paint about social issues that concerned me–patriarchy for instance. In 2016,
my work switched from being personal to political. Now, today, I can’t really differentiate between political and
personal,” says Khytul.

The social media platform, Instagram, was the space she used to share her art–as she points out, Kashmir does
not have enough physical spaces for this purpose, and through the internet her work was reaching a much wider
audience. When the communication lines were snapped after August 5th, Khytul found it difficult to continue to
make art, since she no longer had the means to share it. She kept a journal, but that was personal, and she com-
pletely abandoned art as a medium of expression.

It was also a particularly difficult time for her family. Her brother, Qazi Shibli, editor of the news portal, The Kash-
miriyat, had been called in for questioning by the police in late July 2019, but never came home. After August 5th,
the family knew things would get even harder. Khytul went from the Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag’s office to
various police stations, to try and trace her brother. Eventually after close to two months, her family were told he
had been transported to a jail in Bareilly, in northern India. Qazi Shibli was eventually charged under the Public

KHYTUL ABYAD
Safety Act, and released only in April 2020, when prisons were being decongested owing to the pandemic.
SPEAKING WITH AB

Three months later, in July 2020, Shibli has once again been detained and charged under Section 107 of the CrPC.
“Shibli is in detention right now and it is so difficult for us to get to him even when there is a phone and internet,
and we know where he is. We know what he’s doing. We have all sorts of info, but it’s still so difficult to get to him
and to convince officers to let us meet him,” says Khytul.

In September 2019, Khytul had taken a flight to Delhi, and along with a brother who lives in the Capital, a train
to Bareilly. When the siblings arrived to visit Shibli, carrying permission from the Senior Superintendent Police,
Anantnag, they were turned away, and told the document was not valid. They had to return to Delhi, Khytul recalls,
since hotels in Bareilly were not allowing any Kashmiri guests. Eventually the correct documents to meet him were
organised by her between Delhi and Kashmir.

“I think tracking him down would itself have been so much easier with communication lines open, because we
could have called so many people….We would not have had to go all the way there and be sent back,” says Khytul.
“The only reason we didn’t have to come all the way back to Kashmir was that landlines had started working just
then and we could call from Delhi and wait. The second permission took two days because we could connect to
people. Finding him had taken two months.”

As a young artist, Khytul believes that in a region where information comes at a premium, the internet was the only
truly democratic space that people had. “If it wasn’t a helpful tool for us, they wouldn’t ban it. We live in this place
where every kind of news is filtered, but the internet is a place that everyone and no one controls. If I’m posting,
for that moment, I am in power,” she says.
56
 FR
EE
DO
M
PRES
S OF

57
international article 19
covenant on civil 1 Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.

and political rights 2 Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right
shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or
in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

3 The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article

carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore
be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as
are provided by law and are necessary:
a For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
b For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre
public), or of public health or morals.

journalism is not a crime

On 12th November 2019, Kashmir entered its 100th day without internet access. Outside the
modest Kashmir Press Club in Srinagar dozens of journalists gathered, as they had done the
previous month1, and participated in a protest march2 demanding that internet services be
restored immediately. Some of them held up their darkened laptops, others handbills that read
“100 Days No Internet,” and a few held placards that said “Journalism Is Not a Crime.”

Almost everybody present made a connection with an image familiar to them from just over a
year ago: of journalist Asif Sultan being produced in handcuffs before a Srinagar court3. Asif was
arrested in September 2018 in connection with an article he wrote for a local magazine, Kashmir
Narrator. It was a profile of Burhan Wani, an important militant commander who had been killed
in an encounter the previous year, and in his article Asif had included interviews with non-
combatant members of the Hizbul Mujahideen to which Wani belonged. As he came out of court
in handcuffs, his T-shirt caught the eye of everyone present: “Journalism Is Not a Crime” it said
in bold letters. The image went viral in 2018.

As of early August 2020, Asif Sultan continues to be incarcerated, his trial pending, and the
violations of rights that the journalists were protesting are still in place. These exist on a
continuum of state violence, censorship and surveillance faced by the media community in
Kashmir, as journalists operate in a context of deeply repressive media policies, including

1 https://www.huffingtonpost.in/amp/entry/kashmir-journalists-protest-against-internet-ban_in_5d96a82ae4b02911e11853c4
2 https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/11/12/kashmir-journalists-march-to-protest-100-days-of-internet-shutdown
3 https://scroll.in/latest/912339/j-k-police-file-chargesheet-against-journalist-9-others-for-allegedly-harbouring-militants

58
 press licensing and regulations, censorship, and preventive detention laws.

The violations of journalistic freedoms include a long history of extra-judicial killings and targeted
attacks on working journalists in Kashmir. Following the 2018 killing of senior journalist Shujaat
Bukhari, founder-editor of the daily Rising Kashmir, who was shot multiple times just outside his
office, Free Press Kashmir4 produced a list of 19 journalists who had lost their lives in Kashmir
since 1990. The comparison with numbers gathered from across India by the Committee to
Protect Journalists was telling, as The Wire5 pointed out, where 27 journalists have been killed
at work since 1992. In Kashmir the list of attacks on journalists that have not resulted in death is
long too. “From being the targets of explosions, parcel bombs and having grenades being thrown
at their homes, to being held as hostages, shot at, having their family members harassed, and even
being arrested, journalists in Kashmir face this all on a nearly daily basis,” The Wire said.

World Press Freedom Index 2019

INDIA FELL TO 142ND POSITION OUT OF 180 COUNTRIES

138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146

SOUTH
SUDAN
MYANMAR THAILAND ESWATINI
INDIA MEXICO CAMBODIA PAKISTAN ALGERIA

DATA SOURCE
2020 World Press Freedom Index
https://rsf.org/en/ranking

In 2019 India fell to 142nd position in the World Press Freedom Index6, produced annually by
Reporters Without Borders (RSF). “India’s score in this year’s World Press Freedom Index is
heavily affected by the situation in Kashmir where, after rescinding the state’s autonomy, the
federal government shut down fixed line and mobile Internet connections completely for several
months, making it virtually impossible for journalists to cover what was happening in what has
become a vast open prison,” RSF noted.

A BLACK HOLE OF INFORMATION

The communications shutdown in Kashmir significantly worsened the considerable risks of
being a frontline reporter in a volatile armed conflict Kashmir. The severity and omniscience of
the repressive apparatus were unprecendented this time. Without phones or internet, and with
no road transport of any kind, reporters in Srinagar and across other districts of Kashmir found
themselves cut off from their news desks, from their sources, and perhaps as importantly, from
government, police and military spokespersons.

Outside the formal structures of ‘the media’, the vigorous activity of Whatsapp groups—always the
first off the starting block with local news from distant and poorly connected places in Kashmir—
also went silent. At a time when the people of the region were being put through a series of
critical and consequential political transformations, news and information had disappeared, as if
at the throw of a switch. A September 2019 report titled News behind the barbed wire7, filed by

4 https://freepresskashmir.news/2017/09/23/journalismisnotacrime-list-of-journalists-killed-in-kashmir-proves-otherwise
5 https://thewire.in/media/kashmir-journalists-safety-numbers
6 https://rsf.org/en/ranking
7 http://www.nwmindia.org/research/news-behind-the-barbed-wire-kashmir-s-information-blockade-2

59
 Network of Women in Media (NWMI) and Free Speech Collective, said that in Kashmir “editors
expressed concern that their district correspondents and stringers who were the backbone of their
information ecosystem, have not been contactable for the last one month. There is no information
at all about them, much less of the areas they live in and the condition of the people residing there.”

During previous shutdowns, even when the internet and phones were cut off, journalists in
Srinagar had been able to get curfew passes to move around. This time the authorities were not
issuing curfew passes, citing the absence of publicly declared “curfew” restrictions on movement
or assembly (under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). Yet the capital Srinagar was, in
anthropologist Saiba Varma’s8 words, “a razor-wire city [where] Paramilitary and militarized police
appeared at every intersection, blocking crossings, roads, bridges, and highways with coils of
concertina wire.” On August 6th a local news editor was beaten by police in downtown Srinagar, as
he walked along with other journalists in the Khanyar area and after one of the photographers had
reportedly clicked a photo of a barricade. Media credentials did not mean much, a report filed by
the Committee to Protect Journalists9 said, as the police and paramilitary snatched cameras and
phones and deleted photos.

Among those detained and held incommunicado in the week before the lockdown began was
the Editor of online portal Kashmiriyat, Qazi Shibli. For over a month and a half his whereabouts
remained unknown to his family, Huffington Post10 reported, before they received official
confirmation that he was being held in a jail in Uttar Pradesh, hundreds of kilometers away,
incarcerated under the Public Safety Act, 1978. In April 2020, Qazi Shibli was released after 9
months of detention, and in an article he wrote for Firstpost11 described the circumstances of his
abduction and enforced disappearance. “On the morning of 9 August last year, we were taken
[from the police station] to Srinagar airport and we had no idea about where we were being taken.
For the first two months, we weren’t even told where we were lodged. [Later we learned] it was
Bareilly District Jail.” In its entry on “Indian Kashmir,” the Freedom House index12 reported that

at least two other journalists were detained in the month of August

2019. The internet ban obstructed citizens from reaching out to the
press, and prevented journalists from getting leads on social media,
pushing Kashmir into a “black hole” of information, one journalist
told Newslaundry13.

8 https://www.apnews.com/aa7048cf325646298fb773d7cb12d3b6
9 https://cpj.org/2019/08/in-kashmir-obstruction-confiscated-equipment-and-h
10 https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/journalist-vanishes-in-jammu-and-kashmir-under-psa_in_5d80dabce4b077dcbd6485ef
11 https://www.firstpost.com/india/in-bareilly-jail-i-was-the-guardian-of-all-kashmiris-says-journalist-qazi-shibli-after-9-months-of-detention-under-psa-8310161.html
12 https://freedomhouse.org/country/indian-kashmir/freedom-world/2020
13 https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/02/05/a-panopticon-of-fear-and-rumours-inside-kashmirs-media-centre-during-lockdown

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A STATE OF DENIAL
The black-out not only blinded the world to events in Kashmir, but actively prevented independent
verification, corroboration and authentication of news, in an environment rife with official denials,
media disinformation, and counter-insurgency ‘perception management14’ operations. On August
9th-10th 2019, BBC15, Al Jazeera16 and Reuters17 reported on massive public processions in
Srinagar, which were met with tear gas, rubber bullets and shot-gun pellets fired by state forces.
Despite the significance of these events, no local or Indian media outlets reported the story.
The reports were met with official denial, The Telegraph18 reported, with the Ministry of Home
Affairs tweeting19 that the footage was “completely fabricated & incorrect,” and endorsing police
statements that they had “not fired a single bullet in the 6 days.” Three days later, the Ministry
walked back these claims blaming20 “miscreants” for “widespread unrest” and denying that forces
had opened fire on the crowds. But as a fact-check of the story by Scroll21 described, “By this time,
the claim that news reports about the protests were “fabricated” had already become fodder for
many [Indian right wing news outlets and commentators].”

The journalist Sankarshan Thakur offered testimony in his “Diary of a Srinagar lockdown” in The
Telegraph22: “I may have never ever felt so shut out and so shut down. Not during the protracted
military operations of the IPKF in northern Sri Lanka. Not during the many weeks I was on the
frontier reporting the Kargil war. Not during the Tahrir Square uprising in Cairo. Not even during the
darkest I have witnessed in Kashmir over the past decades.... This was not even censorship, not
about what you can or cannot report. This was being cut out and left cold.”

In the week the NWMI team was in Kashmir they posed a question about the shooting of a
shopkeeper to the official spokesperson of the J&K police, a senior police officer. Journalists who

14 https://salute.co.in/shaping-the-information-environment-in-jk
15 https://www.bbc.com/news/av/49306816/article-370-tear-gas-at-kashmir-rally-india-denies-happened
16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEWWZsLkKeE
17 https://in.reuters.com/article/india-kashmir-370/thousands-protest-in-kashmir-over-new-status-despite-clampdown-idINKCN1UZ0OO
18 https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/kashmir-protest-how-the-government-version-changed/cid/1697637
19 https://twitter.com/PIBHomeAffairs/status/1161224075680931841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1161224075680931841%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_
url=https%3A%2F%2Fscroll.in%2Farticle%2F933758%2Ffact-check-did-bbc-al-jazeera-and-reuters-fabricate-reports-about-a-large-protest-in-kashmir
20 https://twitter.com/PIBHomeAffairs/status/1161224075680931841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1161224075680931841%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_
url=https%3A%2F%2Fscroll.in%2Farticle%2F933758%2Ffact-check-did-bbc-al-jazeera-and-reuters-fabricate-reports-about-a-large-protest-in-kashmir
21 https://scroll.in/article/933758/fact-check-did-bbc-al-jazeera-and-reuters-fabricate-reports-about-a-large-protest-in-kashmir
22 https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/diary-of-srinagar-lockdown/cid/1696258

61
 sought follow ups could obtain more details on Twitter, he said to them, as the administration
was constantly updating information via their handles. “The irony of expecting journalists who
have little or no access to the Internet to check social media networks for official information
was hard to ignore,” senior journalists Laxmi Murthy and Geeta Seshu noted in their report News
Behind the Barbed Wire23. Twitter handles of government spokespersons in J&K were particularly
active during this period, carrying reactions to different news reports, including frequent critical
commentary on media reportage. “Clearly, these are for the consumption of national and
international readers and audiences, completely beyond the ken of a population that is unable to
access the Internet even as it is the subject of social media chatter,” Murthy and Seshu concluded.

“One of the biggest difficulties has been that authorities have not been made available to cross-
check the information or to seek their responses on what we find on the ground,” journalist Parvaiz
Bukhari told TRT World24. “Even in warzones, you go with communication facilities but there was
nothing here; they stymied our basic capabilities of reporting,” Bukhari concluded: “In actual
terms, this does amount to censorship.”

FACILITATION AS CENSORSHIP
“Reporting has been one of the biggest casualties of the government clampdown in J&K,” The
Telegraph newspaper said on August 7, in a statement that accompanied a brief report25 from their
Srinagar correspondent, Muzaffar Raina. Over the next few days the newspaper carried several
other reports by Raina, all of which he had first typed out on his computer, then taken screenshots
of, before sending them on a USB drive26 to New Delhi, from where they were transmitted to the
newspaper’s office in Kolkata. This sort of transmission had become the norm for the dozens of

accredited correspondents, reporters, and video-journalists as well as the large community of

freelance media persons in Kashmir. Without any couriers operational, even sending a USB drive
to Delhi was a difficult task. The only way was to physically get to the airport, which is on the
outskirts of the city, wait outside the security area, and corral someone willing to carry a flash drive
to Delhi. For several weeks this became the template for international wire-service photographers
and reporters, whose inputs are often the basis from which a global audience begins to learn about
all that is happening on the ground.

There were exceptions to these restrictions of course. Indian TV networks, most of them Delhi
based and unlikely to report anything that went against the grain, were able to use their Outside
Broadcast Vans, which are connected through narrow aperture satellite links. Their reporters were
able to continue communicating unhindered. The government seemed to have divided journalists
reporting on Kashmir into two categories, with those based in Delhi getting more access to officials
and other facilities in Kashmir, Muzamil Jaleel, Deputy Editor of the Indian Express, told TRT
World27. He was in Kashmir on August 5th and pointed out that most of the Delhi-based journalists,
especially TV journalists, got all the access they needed, and that “they even use their mobile
phones and internet, and I have no idea how they do that.”

In the immediate aftermath of August 5th the Government set up a ‘facilitation centre’ in Srinagar,
as a courtesy for the huge media contingent that had arrived from New Delhi. Conveniently
located in a private hotel where many of the visiting journalists were staying, it was where
government spokespersons hosted press conferences28, and it included an internet centre. Since
the widespread unrest they had come expecting did not materialise, the visiting press pack

23 http://www.nwmindia.org/research/news-behind-the-barbed-wire-kashmir-s-information-blockade-2
24 https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/kashmiri-journalists-get-sucked-up-in-an-information-black-hole-29863/amp
25 https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/crushing-blockade-on-flow-of-information-in-srinagar/cid/1696279
26 https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/unfamiliar-indifference-and-an-unspoken-question-in-srinagar/cid/1696261?ref=top-stories_home-template
27 https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/kashmiri-journalists-get-sucked-up-in-an-information-black-hole-29863/amp
28 https://www.news18.com/news/india/kashmir-dispatch-8-100-journalists-4-computers-1-mobile-phone-and-lousy-internet-reporting-live-ish-from-kashmir-2273359.html

62
 eventually left. But for several months this ‘facilitation centre’ continued to be the only source of
communication for the entire media in Kashmir - local, Indian, and international.

The ‘facilitation’ began with a single mobile phone and four computers. Sometime later, four more
computers were added, and then two more (one was thoughtfully reserved for women journalists).
The pressure on the facility was unimaginable. On average, more than 200 journalists arrived at
the centre, with 400 on peak days. Most of them usually came in the late afternoon when it was
time for them to file their stories, leading to long hours of waiting for brief access to the internet.
Notices printed on plain paper were pinned on the walls, declaring the time limit per computer
to be 15 minutes: at that rate the 200 journalists would have needed a 50 hour day. Managers of
the centre told Kashmir Life29 that between August 5th and October 14th they registered 16,250
telephone calls and 28,500 internet sessions. Internet speed at the facilitation centre was
abysmal. “My mail wasn’t loaded even after seven minutes, such was the speed,” CNN-News18’s
bureau chief30 told reporters, and left after noting “it is not working” in the daily register.

Describing this crowded space as a “Panopticon of fear and rumours,” Newslaundry31 reported
on the humiliation of professional journalists trying to upload their stories and images in the
full glare of other competing journalists. Disconcertingly, in the general crush anyone with
access to the government-managed facility–from pharmaceutical representatives to political
workers of the BJP–also had access to the same facilities. There were frequent reports of prying
eyes peering over the shoulders of the working journalists, security personnel in the guise of
government employees, and often in the uniform of hotel employees. Ironically the huge crush
at the “facilitation centre” was also turned into an achievement by the government, Newsclick
reported32. A policeman, equipped with a hand-held body scanner, checked journalists at the
entrance, after which they had to enter their details in a register. This log allowed the government
to issue a press release in January 2020 claiming that “more than 50,000 internet sessions were
facilitated for scribes at the media centre after August 5th.”

In a working day of about eight or nine hours, at least four were spent in the ‘facilitation centre’,
trying to file stories on whatever information could be gathered in the first half of the day. If a
pen-drive containing news articles needed to be shipped to Delhi, then a couple of hours would
be taken up by a trip to the airport. The lack of access to information and various other restrictions
on the ground meanwhile came in the way of journalists reporting several incidents, TRT World33
wrote, or confirming whatever information they did manage to get—while making it easier for
officials to deny the reports. This meant that journalists in Kashmir were not able to even skim the
surface of what was happening around them.

The situation was even worse for journalists outside of Srinagar. In December 2019, four months
after the shutdown, limited internet access was provided at a government office in Anantnag,
in southern Kashmir. It didn’t really help local journalists, the BBC reported34. The office was
always crowded, with “only four desktops for a scrum of officials, students and youngsters who
want to log on to respond to emails, fill exam forms, submit job applications or even check their
social media.” Eventually the Srinagar ‘facilitation centre’ was shifted from the private hotel to
a government office, and six more terminals35 became available where journalists were able to
connect with their own laptops. Some media houses managed to obtain leased internet lines36, but
these were expensive and accessible to only two or three of the larger newspapers. For the rest,
restricted to grindingly slow internet speeds, the problem continues.

29 https://kashmirlife.net/rationing-bandwidth-issue-33-vol-11-219328
30 https://www.news18.com/news/india/kashmir-dispatch-8-100-journalists-4-computers-1-mobile-phone-and-lousy-internet-reporting-live-ish-from-kashmir-2273359.html
31 https://www.newslaundry.com/amp/story/2020%2F02%2F05%2Fa-panopticon-of-fear-and-rumours-inside-kashmirs-media-centre-during-lockdown
32 https://www.newsclick.in/journalism-today-kashmir-communications-lockdown-8-computers-queues
33 https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/kashmiri-journalists-get-sucked-up-in-an-information-black-hole-29863/amp
34 https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-india-51441830
35 https://www.newslaundry.com/amp/story/2020%2F02%2F05%2Fa-panopticon-of-fear-and-rumours-inside-kashmirs-media-centre-during-lockdown
36 https://www.newsclick.in/journalism-today-kashmir-communications-lockdown-8-computers-queues

63
CYBER CURFEW: NEWSPAPERS ARE CHOKED OFF
Despite a history of media restrictions, Kashmir has a vigorous local media landscape, with about
150 daily newspapers in English and Urdu. Almost all of the major newspapers have websites
where they post their content online, and many have a strong presence on social media; Greater
Kashmir has over 2 million likes on its Facebook page. There are several independent news
web-portals as well, with a subscriber base that run into tens of thousands. While print editions
of the major newspapers did eventually return after the August 5th shutdown, their websites and
web-exclusive portals came to a complete halt. Online editions of most local dailies remained
suspended for more than three months after internet services were snapped across the valley (one
local daily, Kashmir Monitor, updated its web edition by accessing the internet from outside the
state). Editors, columnists and freelancers working with online portals of different newspapers and
web-exclusive portals were left without work, The Polis Project37 reported.

The pressures on local newspapers did not however start with the August 5 shutdown, and
the current internet blockade in Kashmir must be viewed as part of the general environment of
increasing censorship and control over the media in Kashmir38. Most newspapers depend on
revenues from government advertisements to keep them going. For at least six months before
the communications and security clampdown was imposed, authorities had deprived at least
two prominent dailies, Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader, of all government advertisements.
The editors of these two newspapers had also been summoned for questioning by a federal
investigation agency in connection with cases concerning the conflict in Kashmir, The Wire39
reported. Kashmir Reader was also banned for three months in 2016, and had not received any
advertisements even as late as February 2020, the Andalou Agency40 reported.

While severe restrictions on physical mobility affected everything

from the transportation of staff, to the running of printing presses
and the distribution of newspapers, some of the papers did
crawl back to life. When Greater Kashmir, the largest circulated
daily published from Kashmir, and its companion Urdu daily
Kashmir Uzma, re-appeared, they were virtually unrecognisable.
From a normal spread of 30 pages the paper was down to a
spare 6-8 pages. Considerable space was taken up by classified
advertisements, with notices of cancellation for the hundreds of
wedding receptions that had to be called off in what was the busy
marriage season in Kashmir. The shrinkage did not simply extend
to the reduced number of pages. Greater Kashmir was published
without an editorial page for several days, and for months after
August 5th it avoided editorials on the situation in J&K, even as the
government revoked the special status of, and bifurcated, the state
into two union Territories. The front page of the newspaper was
taken up by pieces extolling the virtues of the new arrangement
that replaced the abrogated Article 370. (The only opinion piece
the newspaper did publish, in the third week of the clampdown,
The Telegraph41 pointed out, argued in favor of the revocation of the special status.) There was
little or no coverage of how people suffered in the weeks after the communication blockade and
clampdown was imposed. Instead international news found an exaggerated prominence. “We
know more about what is happening in the world than what is happening in Kashmir after reading

37 https://thepolisproject.com/we-may-have-to-shut-down-permanently-online-media-in-kashmir-has-come-to-a-grinding-halt-by-zafar-aafaq/#.Xv7eW_JS_om
38 https://adimagazine.com/articles/war-against-words/
39 https://thewire.in/security/nia-questions-greater-kashmir-editor-over-articles-in-newspaper
40 https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/journalists-in-kashmir-cant-work-freely/1730112
41 https://www.telegraphindia.com/amp/india/press-in-kashmir-forced-into-silence/cid/1730719

64
 the newspaper,” one Srinagar resident told The Wire42.

Online news portals were already leading a precarious existence, since many of them are
dependent on very modest revenues based on hits. “We were able to raise ten dollars from Google
ads in the third month since our inception,” Sheik Uzair, who had started a news website called
PostcardKashmir.com in May 2019, told The Polis Project43. Qazi Zaid, the editor and owner of Free
Press Kashmir, an independent news website, said that “The revenue model is destroyed, and all
advertisers have pulled out, which basically means we cannot pay the salaries of the staff. We may
have to shut down permanently.”

The absence of the editorial voice in major newspapers in Kashmir sent a clear message about the
state of the media, the report by Network of Women in Media44 (NWMI) and Free Speech Collective
stated. “Editorials, Op-eds and leads are now on topics such as: “Vitamin A foods: Uses, benefits
and top 10 dietary sources”; “Want to ditch junk food?”; “Should you consume caffeine during
summer? The answer will surprise you”; “Fruit produce”; “Planetary thinking”; “Our oceans and
us.” Urdu papers too, while overall faring better in news reportage, for the most part have avoided
editorials on the current crisis, instead carrying editorials such as “Ghar ki safai kaisey ho” (How to
keep the house clean) or “Jodon ka dard (Joint pain)”” journalists Murthy and Seshu noted during
their visit. Even five months after the August 5th shutdown, as journalists gathered at the Kashmir
Press Club for a January 2020 seminar titled ‘Cyber Curfew’, the situation had not changed very
much. “I can tell you what is happening in New York, but I don’t know what is happening in Sopore,”
the editor of a Srinagar-based newspaper said to Outlook Magazine45. (Sopore is 50 km from
Srinagar.) As journalists spoke about the impact of the Internet shutdown on their work, the editor of
the Urdu daily Nida-i-Mashriq summarised it most pithily: “Internet ban is the ban on newspapers.”

6 OCT 2019

7 OCT 2019

42 https://thewire.in/media/in-jk-more-international-news-on-front-pages-than-news-on-kashmir 8 OCT 2019

43 https://thepolisproject.com/we-may-have-to-shut-down-permanently-online-media-in-kashmir-has-
come-to-a-grinding-halt-by-zafar-aafaq/#.Xv7eW_JS_om
44 http://www.nwmindia.org/research/news-behind-the-barbed-wire-kashmir-s-information-blockade-2
45 https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-it-is-a-ban-on-newspapers-kashmiri-journalists-on-internet-shutdown-in-valley/345315

65
 Meanwhile The Press Council of India (PCI), a statutory watch-dog body set up for “preserving
the freedom of the press and of maintaining and improving the standards of press in India” filed
an intervention during the proceedings in the Anuradha Bhasin case, justifying the restrictions
on communications as being “in the interest of the integrity and sovereignty of the nation,” The
Wire46 reported. The PCI chair-person, (Retired) Justice Chandramauli Prasad told the Huffington
Post47 that “No matter how liberal one is, it has to be faced — the fact that some news is best
not reported.” In response to trenchant criticism and public demands that they withdraw the
application, both by the Editor’s Guild and the wider media fraternity in India, the PCI eventually
changed its stand, stating that it did not support restrictions on press freedoms, the Times of
India48 reported.

JOURNALISM IS STILL A CRIME

As the post August 5th restrictions fell into the shadow of the Covid-19 lockdown, and against a
backdrop of renewed civil society demands that full internet connectivity be restored in light of
the pandemic, Kashmir witnessed a fresh onslaught on press freedoms and online speech, this
time in the guise of measures to curb the spread of “fake news”. The J&K Police’s ‘Cyber Crime’
cell at Srinagar, formed “to counter fake news, rumors, threats and pro-militancy propaganda on
social media and track people involved in these activities, [was] now using its expertise to combat
the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Economic Times50 reported. “The cyber police has increased vigil
on social media, which J&K government in its several orders has blamed for political unrest in
Kashmir. The continued restriction on high speed 4G mobile internet, government believes is also
a deterrent against misuse of Internet and social media,” it said. In an atmosphere of heightened
mass surveillance, police complaints were registered against social media handles and several

anonymous social media users were traced and summoned to the police station for questioning.
The police officer heading the cyber cell, Tahir Ashraf, had tweeted that “13 FIRs for misuse
of social media registered in Kashmir zone so far. Fake news promoters, rumour mongers and
handles promoting terrorism are under watch. More action to follow,” Outlook49 reported. A press
release issued by the Cyber Crime cell also said that “The cyber police of Kashmir are monitoring
all the profiles and the content uploaded by the users.” Ashraf, an active social media user himself,
issued public threats and warnings on his twitter account, against specific anonymous handles.
Several of the targeted handles then issued public apologies, which were retweeted by Ashraf.
He was quoted in the Economic Times50 as saying “It became necessary to identify and catch this
[named] user otherwise it emboldens everybody else.” According to officials at the cyber police
station, around 20 teenagers, with scores of fake handles spreading propaganda and fake news,
were detained and released after “counseling” as “they were too young and were involved in such
activity for the first time.”

This criminalizing of social media discourse, often backed by legal and police sanction, is deeply
inimical to a free and open media environment, and exerts a chilling effect on all forms of public
expression. Information control is exercised not just against individual users, but by getting
corporations such as Facebook and Twitter to comply with official requests for censorship,
all made and acted upon in a non-transparent manner. Analysis by the Committee to Protect
Journalists51 of 53 blocking requests sent to Twitter by the Indian Government, concerning
several hundred distinct URLs, found a majority of the targeted handles “straddling the lines of
activism, information sharing, and commentary. Many were operated by international observers
or Kashmiris based abroad.” CPJ found that 95 entire accounts were affected, and 51% of all
accounts withheld worldwide during the study period.

46 https://thewire.in/media/press-council-of-india-media-restrictions-kashmir
47 https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/kashmir-article-370-press-freedom_in_5d652716e4b008b1fd2140a5?ncid=other_huffpostre_pqylmel2bk8&utm_campaign=related_articles
48 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/after-backlash-pci-to-tell-sc-it-does-not-approve-of-restriction-on-media/articleshow/70867436.cms
49 https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/13-firs-filed-in-kashmir-over-misuse-of-social-media-ld/1804966
50 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/cyber-police-surveillance-aiding-fight-against-covid-19-outbreak-in-kashmir/articleshow/75155188.cms
51 https://cpj.org/2019/10/india-opaque-legal-process-suppress-kashmir-twitter
66
 The exigencies of the pandemic were weaponised against the media fraternity too, resulting in
increased surveillance and blocking of news handles. The Print52 reported on an eight-page list of
twitter handles “under surveillance” of the J&K police and inadvertently circulated on a mailing
list by a police official. On the list were German news channel DW News, Turkish broadcaster TRT
World, Pakistani channels ARY News and Samaa English, and Radio Pakistan. The Twitter handles
of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and journalist Hamid Mir, as well as Kashmiri journalist
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz were also on the list.

The problem of disinformation and rumours was compounded by the continuous throttling of
internet speeds and the social media ban, as accurate information and credible sources continued
to be hard to discern and access, and it was effectively impossible to fact-check or counter
misinformation. A Firstpost53 report that 178 people had been arrested pursuant to the police’s
crackdown on “fake news” pointed out the flaw in the strategy. “With no independent means
to check the veracity of most of the posts that are circulated on Whatsapp groups, Twitter and
Facebook, fake orders—some of which are attributed to the government—have also brought to the

fore the trust deficit between locals and the authorities. After an order about 4G mobile internet
services being restored went viral on social networking sites, the government issued a clarification
that it was fake. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted54, “If you are going to restore our
4G then please just go ahead & do it. Stop messing with our heads with these ‘orders’, ‘fake orders’
& ‘denials’.”

Journalists have also been subject to police investigations and violations of privacy and journalistic
privilege, including warrantless searches and seizures of cameras, computers, phones and
notes, as well as repeated interrogations to disclose the identities of confidential sources in this
crackdown on “fake news.” A recent communication55 by three UN Special Experts expressed
concern at the “pattern of silencing independent reporting on the situation in Jammu & Kashmir
through the threat of criminal sanction.” It referred specifically to the criminal proceedings, under
serious charges of “glorifying anti-national activities” and “incitement to violence” initiated against
four Kashmiri journalists, Naseer Ganai, Gowhar Geelani, Peerzada Ashiq and Masrat Zahra, for
journalistic activities that included reposting news photographs and reporting and commentary
on the official pandemic response. The J&K police maintained that their actions had no bearing
on journalistic freedoms in Kashmir. In their letter the UN experts reiterated56 the internationally
held position that “general prohibitions on the dissemination of information based on vague and
ambiguous ideas, including “false news” or “non objective information” are incompatible with
international standards for restrictions on freedom of expression.”

52 https://theprint.in/india/jk-police-send-media-list-of-twitter-handles-theyre-monitoring-then-ask-them-to-ignore/325182
53 https://www.firstpost.com/india/jammu-and-kashmir-police-struggles-to-combat-fake-news-on-coronavirus-outbreak-and-internet-restrictions-178-people-arrested-in-valley-8288081.html
54 https://twitter.com/omarabdullah/status/1242840041522528257?lang=en
55 https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25237
56 https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25237

67
MINISTRY OF TRUTH
More recently the government’s practices of coercive information control and its criminalisation of
“fake news” have been formalised in the form of the Jammu & Kashmir Media Policy, 202057 a 53
page document aimed at “creating a sustained narrative on the functioning of the government in
media” and building “a genuinely positive image of the government based on performance.” The
policy makes no mention of the continuing restrictions on internet in Kashmir, despite an avowed
special focus on ‘social media,’ ‘AV’ and ‘online mediums’. It contemplates the setting up of a
monitoring mechanism, empowered to examine the content of print, electronic and other media.
“Any individual or group indulging in fake news, unethical or anti national activities or in plagiarism
shall be de-empaneled besides being proceeded against under law,” the policy reads. An editorial
in the Indian Express58 titled Ministry of Truth provided a snap-shot of the surreal state of press
freedoms in Kashmir: “The internet has still not been restored to its full strength. Restrictions
on the media ensured that there was no first draft of history from the ground. At a time when
democratic political voices remain missing in J&K, the ‘new media policy’ is a further affront,
intended to keep control of the narrative of J&K.”

A recent communication by three UN Special Experts expressed

concern at the “pattern of silencing independent reporting
on the situation in Jammu & Kashmir through thethreat
of criminal sanction.” It referred specifically to the criminal
proceedings, including under serious charges of “glorifying
anti-national activities” and “incitement to violence”
initiated against four Kashmiri journalists

57 https://kashmirlife.net/jammu-and-kashmir-media-policy-2020-236330
58 https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/jammu-kashmir-new-media-policy-6454570

68
Aijaaz Ahmed Bund is a queer activist based in Srinagar. “As Kashmiris, clampdowns are nothing new for us, we’re
used to it, we’ve seen it throughout our lives,” says Aijaaz. “But as part of the LGBTQ+ community, we are already
marginalised, so this lockdown is one more layer of that oppression. It is just pushing our community to the wall.”

The 30-year-old assistant professor started Sonzel (Kashmiri for rainbow) when he saw first-hand the discrimina-
tion against the trans community in the valley. A trans person, working as meanzimyoar (matchmaker) came to his
home for the festivities at his eldest sister’s wedding. She was initially not allowed to enter, and then treated with
disdain by the family. What started as an advocacy movement in 2011, slowly turned into the Sonzel Welfare Trust
by 2017, providing a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community in Kashmir, where members can air their grievances,
avail of psychotherapy, and even access legal support if required.

A lot of people would reach out to Sonzel via phone, or on their Facebook page, which has over 4,000 followers.
But after August 5th, 2019, this access ceased entirely. “Those from the community who were suicidal, dealing
with trauma or just needed a space to speak had been cut off from the only support system they knew. There were
so many people who had not even heard their partner’s voices until the landlines were restored. They didn’t know
if they were alive or dead,” says Aijaaz. “And all that when you don’t have a platform where you can vent out your
feelings, and you have to live locked down with your abuser–mostly it is members of the family.”

Very little has been written about the valley’s queer people, and gender-and sexuality-based violence remains un-
der-researched, journalist Haris Zargar pointed out in the New Frame. “In a traditional conservative society such
as Kashmir,” he writes, sex and sexuality are considered taboo or deeply private, and “This way, the Kashmiri so-

AIJAAZ AHMED BUND

SPEAKING WITH AB

ciety mostly denies the existence of the LGBTQIA+ community.” The trans community is the most visible—in some
contexts they are the only people with a recognizable public presence—but they too have been relegated to the
margins. They are discriminated against from their early years, often forced to drop out of educational institutions,
and shamed more generally.

As Aijaaz reminds us, “In Kashmir, we have our own share of homophobia. Because of this the community doesn’t
really have any open physical spaces where they can feel safe. On the internet, we are connected to others from
the community. Without it, we are completely isolated.”

The shutdown of August 5th, as well as the Covid-19 lockdown that followed, led to the heightened stigmatisation
and economic devastation of the trans community. Without work or income, many are faced with the threat of evic-
tion. This, Aijaaz says, has been severely detrimental to the mental health of members of the community.

There was also a shutdown of their limited media of expression. “Here a lot of young members from the trans com-
munity would use TikTok as a medium of expression–they would put up videos, cross-dress. It’s all gone,” Aijaaz
says. “There are also apps like Grindr, which are the only options for our community here in Kashmir. We don’t have
parties etc, so that is one medium through which people could meet and date. All that stopped as well.”

“The internet is something the whole world needs, but I can’t express to you how much we need it here as a
community–when it is lost, the sense of belonging breaks completely. You feel alienated, socially isolated,” says
Aijaaz. He concludes mournfully, “Your support system within the community, even with the global movement is
completely disrupted. You are alone.”
69
 SOC
IAL TO
RI
LIFE GH
T

70
UN human Resolution A/HRC/32/L.20 Article 19
rights council Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and
cultural rights, including the right to development

1 Affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected
online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of
frontiers and through any media of one’s choice, in accordance with articles 19
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights;

8 Calls upon all States to address security concerns on the Internet in accordance
with their international human rights obligations to ensure protection of freedom of
expression, freedom of association, privacy and other human rights online, including
through national democratic, transparent institutions, based on the rule of law, in a
way that ensures freedom and security on the Internet so that it can continue to be a
vibrant force that generates economic, social and cultural development;

collective punishment
In the immediate aftermath of August 5th 2019, very little information emerged about everyday
life in Kashmir. Overnight, and with no prior warning, landlines and mobile phones stopped
working, text messaging went dead, and broadband and mobile internet lost connectivity.
Unable to connect with each other or with the outside world, the 8 million people of Kashmir
felt nothing short off besieged. Internet and telecommunications shutdowns are familiar to the
people of Kashmir. “Banning internet access is not a preventative measure when it happens so
often,” Muhammad Faysal, the 25-year-old founder of WithKashmir.org, a blogging platform for
“opinionated Kashmiris” had told Buzzfeed1 in April 2017, “It’s a collective punishment — a way to
crush dissent.”

In what has been described as the first instance of “sweeping social media censorship,”2 in 2017
the Jammu & Kashmir Government directed Internet Service Providers to block access to 22 social
media sites in all the districts of Kashmir for up to one month under the Indian Telegraph Act,
1885 and rules (2007)3. The order noted4 that “social media is increasingly being used by anti-
national elements to disturb public order and tranquility, that such misuse of social media comes
with no accountability on the part of the miscreants, that such incidents have been observed to
cause large-scale damage to life and property.” The decision was taken at a meeting of the Unified
High Command Headquarters, the Indian Express5 reported, which was headed by the Chief
Minister, Mehbooba Mufti and consisting of the highest civilian and military authorities.

1 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/a-local-government-just-blocked-social-media-in-kashmir-for
2 https://thewire.in/politics/kashmir-internet-ban-social-media
3 Government Order No: HOME/ISA/476 of 2017 dated 26/04/2017 on file with JKCCS
4 https://sflc.in/22-social-media-websites-blocked-kashmir-valley-one-month
5 http://indianexpress.com/article/india/social-media-sites-blocked-in-valley-for-a-month-public-order-cited-unrest-protest-mufti-4629850

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 The August 5th shutdown was the 55th time the internet in Kashmir had been snapped in 2019,
the SFLC reported6. What was unprecedented this time around was the scale, for it included all
means of communications–including most TV channels. Due to the strict curfew and the extensive
deployment of forces on every street, hardly anyone dared to venture out, and the totalizing
nature of the shutdown created an atmosphere of intimidation, panic, and terror. Even as the
situation in Kashmir was becoming a major international news story, Kashmiris were imprisoned
in their homes, with no knowledge of each other’s lives and deaths7, cut off from their loved ones
both inside and outside Kashmir8. The blockade effectively paralysed normal social life and daily
interactions, and seemed designed to break the will of the people.

The importance of social media to the social, cultural and political lives of Kashmiris cannot
be overestimated. In a context of frequent and severe restrictions on physical movement, and
the relentless and militarised control over community spaces, including market places, cinema
halls, mosques and campuses, it is social media that enables conversations across the public
and private spheres, from the most intimate and everyday communications to wider debates
and discussions about current events. In an atmosphere of intense surveillance, censorship, and
state control over print and television media, social media remains a vital means for Kashmiris to
share local and breaking news, as well as express their views. As Faysal of WithKashmir.org told
Buzzfeed, “Social media has allowed Kashmiris to humanize their struggles through photos and
videos. In a region torn by violence, platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are 90% of our
social lives. That’s what you’re taking away when you block them.”

“Technological and social media advancements can potentially transform human rights
movements by giving voice and means to the remotest of areas and issues [...] says Kept in the
dark9, a report by the Association for Progressive Communications that looks at the psycho-
social impacts of frequent internet shutdowns in India.” As has been detailed by Human Rights
Watch in its work on the benefits of ICTs10 for data gathering and distribution, “attention to

actual or potential abuse can be drawn instantly, and redressal sought in real time via “live-
tweeting...” “This is especially relevant in India in conflicted areas like Jammu & Kashmir.
Residents have realised the power of social media and the Internet in disseminating information
and have been using it to reveal to the world the atrocities that take place in the region,” it goes
on to say. In response, state authorities claim to have banned mobile Internet services under
the guise of “national security.” They also claim that they throttle and block the internet as a
precautionary measure, with the ostensible rationale of curbing the spread of “fake news” and
“terrorist propaganda”11 over social networks, on the grounds that such false information is
likely to “incite” violence and cause “law and order” problems. For the government the denial
of access to the internet has now become the quickest and most convenient mode of unbridled
censorship and information control, despite research12 which shows such bans are ineffectual and
counterproductive with regard to both minimising disinformation and preventing political violence.

Frequent and prolonged internet shutdowns enact a profound digital apartheid by systematically
and structurally depriving the people of Kashmir of the means to participate in a highly networked
and digitised world. “Social exclusion has become a major consequence of network shut-downs.
Social exclusion refers to both individual exclusion and group exclusion from society or other
groups. It results in denial of access to opportunities, public goods, public information, and
self-respect in the public sphere…” the ‘Kept in the Dark’13 report states, adding that “[...] Social
exclusion is crucially related to the issue of equal opportunity.” Arguing that in Kashmir India is
fighting “ideas, not terrorism,” Indian commentator Manoj Joshi writes in The Wire14 that “the

6 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/kashmir-communications-blackout?bfsource=relatedmanual
7 https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-370-communication-blockade
8 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/communication-blackout-sparks-panic-among-kashmiris-outside-j-k-states-assure-safety/story-JqS51dy8OQ1ilP6nn70LHK.html
9 https://www.apc.org/en/pubs/kept-dark-social-and-psychological-impacts-network-shutdowns-india
10 https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/26/will-technology-transform-human-rights-movement
11 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/terrorists-inciting-people-fake-news-supreme-court-1673246-2020-05-01
12 https://firstdraftnews.org/latest/telling-fact-from-fiction-inside-kashmirs-internet-blackout
13 https://www.apc.org/en/pubs/kept-dark-social-and-psychological-impacts-network-shutdowns-india
14 https://thewire.in/rights/the-throttling-of-internet-speeds-in-kashmir-is-aimed-at-fighting-ideas-not-terrorism

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 purpose of the exercise of keeping the Internet at the 2G level is to punish the Kashmiri people
and deprive them of the means to avail of the freedom of speech, expression, the right to carry on
any trade or occupation — as they have the right to do under the Constitution of India.”

‘DISAPPEARED’ FROM WHATSAPP

On December 5th, 2020 dozens of Whatsapp messaging groups in India (and across the world)
saw a sudden exodus of members, with scores of participants shown as having “left” the group.
By the end of the day these unexplained and near simultaneous exits had run into the thousands.
One thing common to those ‘leaving’ was that they were all people from Kashmir, an indicator
of the growing social isolation of people in the region. Explanations came quickly enough: it
was 4 months to the day from August 5th, 2019, and the ‘disappearing’ Whatsapp users had
been unable to access these groups during this period. “To maintain security and limit data
retention, WhatsApp accounts generally expire after 120 days of inactivity,” Facebook, the owners
of Whatsapp, told Buzzfeed15. “When that happens, those accounts automatically exit their
WhatsApp groups. People will need to be re-added to groups upon regaining access to the Internet
and joining WhatsApp again.”

One poignant example of the consequences of this summary ejection was a WhatsApp group
with hundreds of young Kashmiris, set up in February 2019 for students from all over India. Many
of these student had faced a violent backlash in the wake of an attack by a suicide bomber on a
convoy of paramilitary soldiers in Kashmir’s Pulwama district. “We created a WhatsApp help group
and received 1,700 calls over the next three days, all seeking help as right-wing elements were
hounding them,” Nasir Khuehmi, a 21-year-old student who had formed the group told Outlook16.

15 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/hundreds-of-kashmiris-are-disappearing-from-their-whatsapp?bfsource=relatedmanual
16 https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-news-then-they-came-for-us/301320

73
 There was a pressing need for such a group: “Girls were crying for help, it made my heart sink.
That day I realised what it means to be a Kashmiri outside Kashmir.” On December 5th 2019
Khuehmi watched the group begin to rapidly empty out. “I was shocked and disappointed,” he told
Buzzfeed17. “It was heartbreaking.”

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH

Nowhere was the humanitarian tragedy of the communications blackout more apparent than in the
stories that emerged of people unable to get news about life events, accidents, births, and deaths
among friends and loved ones. On the evening of August 27th, seventy-three-year old Azee Begum
was rushed to Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences from the nearby Anchar
locality. She had developed a tumour in her head a year ago, and as her condition deteriorated
fast, she passed away late in the night on August 31st. Even though their house in Anchar is barely
a kilometre away, Azee’s son was unable to inform anyone at home, and the volatile situation
in the area forced him to stay back at the hospital for the night. “We all were having tea and my
uncles entered the house carrying the body of granny,” a family member told The Wire18 of the
next morning: “The sight of the body left us shell shocked.” Azee Begum’s daughter Mahjabeen
learnt of her mother’s death only three days later, when a relative arrived at her home in Pattan—a
township only 30 kms north of Srinagar—to inform her.

Channels of everyday communication between families inside the besieged region also broke
down, as also with relatives travelling or living outside Kashmir. A Kashmiri woman died in tragic
circumstances when a fire broke out19 in Delhi’s Zakir Nagar. Her family in Kashmir couldn’t be
informed because of the communication blackout. The news of her death was publicly shared on

social media groups in Kashmir in the hope that someone travelling back could get the information
across. Another wrenching instance, reported by the Times of India20, described the struggles
of a family to raise funds for a critically ill woman undergoing chemotherapy at Mumbai’s Tata
Memorial hospital in early August 2019. Her husband had returned to Kashmir to make financial
arrangements when the shutdown was imposed, cutting off all communications, and leaving
him stranded, until a week later when flights were restored. (His ticket had to be booked outside
Kashmir, and then sent to him through a contact at J&K Bank.) Without the funds to shift her to
the ICU, and despite her deteriorating health, the patient was sent back to the general ward, even
as the family made desperate attempts to send word to their relatives back home through social
media and officials.

NARRATIVES OF NORMALCY
Addressing a gathering of former civil servants21 in New Delhi a month after the lockdown of
August 5th, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah stated there are no restrictions in the Kashmir
Valley, and the entire world has supported the move to abrogate the special status given to
Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370. “Where are the restrictions? It is only in your mind. There
are no restrictions. Only misinformation about restrictions is being spread,” he said. “But people
are trying to create hue and cry over lack of mobile connections for few days. Lack of phone
connection is not a human rights violation,” Shah said. He added that 10,000 new landline

17 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/hundreds-of-kashmiris-are-disappearing-from-their-whatsapp?bfsource=relatedmanual
18 https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-370-communication-blockade
19 https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/woman-dies-in-delhi-fire-how-cops-struggled-to-reach-parents-in-kashmir/story-vvaEB1IWcSE3iegry5RqkL.html
20 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/kashmiri-family-struggles-to-treat-critical-58-year-old-in-mumbai/articleshow/70636721.cms
21 https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/sep/29/restriction-only-in-your-mind-lack-of-phone-connection-not-a-human-rights-violation-shah-on-jk-2040812.html

74
 connections were given in Jammu & Kashmir while 6,000 PCOs had been established in the last
two months.

These statements came after a month that had been particularly difficult for people in Kashmir. In
the days before the festival of Eid the impact of the lockdown22 was felt even more poignantly. This
is a time of the year when many thousands of Kashmiris return home, from India and all over the
world. Their numbers are swelled by students studying outside Kashmir, young people who have
left the region on account of the disturbed conditions. Now they were unable to return, while the
communications blockade made it impossible for them to reach out to their families and friends,
even if it was just to say that all was well. People were forced to send paper notes to friends in
order to contact relatives. One note sent by a woman working in Delhi took three days to be
hand-delivered to her father in Kashmir, The Guardian23 reported. The note simply said, “I am fine,
do not worry about me. You take care of yourself.”

Meanwhile in Srinagar the civil administration announced that “300 special telephone booths
were being set up to help public communicate with relatives” reported Timesnow24. They said that
“officers have been activated through [the] Resident Commissioner in New Delhi [and] at various
places including Aligarh to help students from Jammu & Kashmir get in touch with their families
on the occasion of Eid.” The reality was at odds with these numbers. The days before Eid saw
people queued for hours at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in central Srinagar, to use one of the
few phones that were made available for people to talk to their relatives living outside J&K. “We
stood in the queue for more than four hours on Saturday. Late in the evening, the man handling the
service abruptly closed down the booth saying ‘no more phones today’,” an anxious Maimoona told
The Wire25. A government school teacher, Maimoona and her husband Wajahat Nabi had already
made the rounds of the ‘D.C. Office’ for several days to try and contact their only son, a student of
medicine in Bengaluru. “We pleaded with him, begged him to give us one chance, but he wouldn’t
listen,” she said of the government employee handling the phone service: “If he had kept the
booth open for a few more minutes, he would have got the blessing of a mother.” “Our hearts are
on fire,” Habibullah Bhat, 75, told Associated Press26, who said he came to the mosque to offer Eid
prayers despite his failing health. “India has thrown us into the dark ages, but God is on our side
and our resistance will win.”

A month into a near-total communications blackout the government announced the restoration of
landline telephone service. With only about 100,000 landline subscribers in the state of Jammu &
Kashmir (as compared to 11.33 million mobile users) people had to line up at offices or homes
with landline telephones to try to contact family and friends. “Our landlines have been restored

22 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/indian-activists-release-report-visiting-desolate-kashmir-190814120848149.html
23 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/our-hearts-are-on-fire-kashmir-spends-eid-al-adha-in-lockdown
24 https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/ahead-of-eid-300-special-telephone-booths-to-be-set-up-in-jammu-and-kashmir-to-help-locals-communicate/467196
25 https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-restrictions-curfew-communication-article-370
26 https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/3022484/indian-troops-kashmir-allow-muslims-walk-mosques-eid-holiday-many-stay

75
 but we are still unable to talk to people. It is frustrating. I have been trying to call people since
morning, but I am not getting through,” Syed Musahid, told Associated Press27 in Srinagar.
Kashmiris living outside the region also had trouble getting in touch with their families inside
Kashmir. “I kept trying a hundred times to reach my family in Kashmir, and only then did my call go
through,” Bint-e-Ali, a Kashmiri in the Indian city of Bengaluru told reporters. “I hope I live to tell
this horrendous tale to our next generation about how India didn’t even let us talk to our family
and friends,” she added. “All these days, when I couldn’t reach out to my family, I managed to
reach out to Srinagar’s prominent radio station. The radio station was taking requests from
Kashmiris staying outside the state who wanted to send across messages to their families. And
that’s exactly what happened,” one Delhi based Kashmiri wrote on Quint28.

In the days before the festival of Eid the impact of the lockdown
was felt even more poignantly. This is a time of the year when many
thousands of Kashmiris return home, from India and all over the world.
Their numbers are swelled by students studying outside Kashmir,
young people who have left the region on account of the disturbed conditions.

INTERNET NOMADS
The ban on the SMS service combined with the shutting down of the internet, compounded delays,
expenses and frustrations, with people unable to access OTP (One Time Pin) codes sent to their
registered phone numbers, a mandatory verification step in online transactions, as well as for
many government filings, tax returns, and job and educational applications. Forcing people offline
made it impossible for them to even pay utility bills, or just send a message to family outside the
besieged zone. Some Kashmiris began to make special trips from the regional capital Srinagar,
flying out to New Delhi, or driving 300 kms to Leh or eight hours to Jammu city.

A report in the Economic Times29 highlighting the cross-sectoral impact of the SMS ban described
how students had to either travel outside Kashmir (or register the phone numbers of their relatives
who are outside Kashmir) to be able to submit forms. “I had to give the phone number of my
relative who is in Kolkata for being able to receive the OTP. My friend had to go to Jammu to
submit the form,” one young person told reporters. Another described the difficulties of making
an application to the Road & Transport Office (RTO) which issues and renews driving licences and
vehicular permits: “I had to send my SIM card to Jammu where the services work. My relative then
read out the OTP over phone and I was able to complete my work,” he said.

In early September 2019, the J&K administration announced that an internet kiosk had been set
up30 at the District Collector’s office in Kupwara. (The notification was made public by Twitter, which
no one in the region had access to at the time.) “Services available to stakeholders including public

27 https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/india-landline-phone-service-fully-restored-kashmir-65405243
28 https://www.thequint.com/my-report/letters-to-kashmir-article-370-abrogation
29 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/suspension-of-sms-facility-in-kashmir-affects-services-of-several-sectors/articleshow/72458385.cms
30 https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/internet-kiosk-set-up-in-kupwara-for-essential-purposes-119090601451_1.html

76
 engineering departments and contractors for e-tendering and students, youth for filling up exam,
recruitment forms, other essential purposes,” the administration said. The civil administration
subsequently announced that they had set up centers with Internet access all across the region to
help students register for exams. A senior official in the Srinagar district administration told Press
Trust of India31 that “some 65 computer-with-internet kiosks were set up to ensure the facilitation
of all students approaching the facilities to register and apply for the scholarships.”

The unreliable number (and nature) of the internet kiosks run by the administration in Srinagar and
surrounding areas was most sharply reflected in the phenomenon of the “internet express.”32 Soon
after train services resumed on November 11th, every day hundreds of Kashmiris began to take the
train to Banihal town, about 100 km south of Srinagar, making a beeline for one of its cybercafés.
In a town of fewer than 4,000 people, business boomed at the handful of noisy internet cafes.
“The speed is very slow,” the manager of one of the cafes admitted. “Scores of Kashmiris, mostly
students and income tax professionals, come visiting every day,” he told AFP33. Fumes from the
diesel generator required to keep the computers running during frequent power cuts filled the
cramped space. “I felt suffocated inside,” a student at Kashmir University told Reuters34. “This
internet gag is driving me crazy.”

VIRTUAL INSURGENCY
The phased restoration of the internet was a critical element of the claims made by the Indian
authorities, both in the Supreme Court and before the international community, that they were
restoring ‘normalcy’. However, the intermittent, opaque and arbitrary manner in which connectivity
continues to be “partially restored” and frequently re-suspended, or selectively throttled, across

different locations has created new forms of digital discrimination and repression—and hence
resistance—in the region and in the diaspora. Many groups were created by Kashmiris on text
messaging apps to convey messages from family members and relatives outside Kashmir. People
hand carried letters and notes to each other, but transmittal was slow, and even word of mouth
networks took days to convey a simple message. Films, e-books, music and news reports were
archived on USB drives, which travelled widely from person to person by hand, or were exchanged
via Bluetooth and platforms such as Shareit.

For the Kashmiri diaspora, the only means to communicate and check on their parents, siblings,
and other relatives was platforms like WhatsApp or FaceTime. With sizeable and long established
concentrations in the United States and the United Kingdom, the communication shutdown meant
that they lost touch with family in Kashmir. Diaspora groups evolved and grew to take the place
of locally based channels of communication and news. Instagram handles like @standwkashmir
and @withkashmir and other groups run by the diaspora kept a track of this communication black
out, documenting the events that had happened and were still happening in Kashmir, even as
the people of Kashmir living through them were reeling under a black out and unaware of these
events. Other groups and individuals from outside Kashmir organised humanitarian relief, for
example by conveying messages for individual requirements of essential medicines and acting as
a phone-based help line. “They are saying everything is fine, but if I have to send basic medicines
from Delhi, that means nothing is all right. I am putting it up on the internet and people are
watching,” entrepreneur Javed Parsa, who ran one such aid group, told Livemint35.

The first public notification of internet restrictions, passed in compliance with the Supreme Court’s

31 https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/j-k-thousands-of-students-submit-online-applications-for-pre-post-matric-scholarships-119110300757_1.html
32 https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/internet-express-helping-kashmiris-online-200113032942806.html?utm_source=website&utm_medium=article_page&utm_campaign=read_more_
links
33 https://news.yahoo.com/overload-train-kashmirs-internet-oasis-053551177.html
34 https://www.reuters.com/article/india-kashmir-internet/feature-no-web-no-jobs-kashmiris-board-the-internet-express-idUSL8N2971OF
35 https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/emergency-calls-only-a-home-under-lockdown-1568369662129.html

77
 judgment in the Anuradha Bhasin Case36, announced a limited ‘whitelist’ of 153 websites, which
was later extended to 301 websites to include selected news portals. The lack of a coherent policy
of what ought to be in the ‘whitelist’ was manifested by the fact that video-streaming websites
such as Netflix, Amazon and Hotstar were included, The Wire37 pointed out, although these were
still impossible to view with the restricted 2G bandwidth. Popular social media platforms including
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok were not included in the list of permitted websites. And
while online shopping majors like Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra were white-listed as “utilities,” no
local e-commerce website was included.

An important analysis by Rohini Lakshane, Prateek Waghre and others in MediaNama38 pointed
out that a “white-list” is not even technically feasible owing to the interconnected nature of the
internet – of the 301 white-listed websites researchers found that only 126 were usable “to
some degree.” Internet Freedom Foundation39 explained that even whitelisted sites can become
fully functional, “only if the web application is permitted to make network calls to other websites
to load JavaScript, style sheets, maps, videos, images, analytics etc.” In many cases, while a
website’s main domain has been whitelisted, subdomains containing the log in page or other
important features remain blocked.

As social media remained prohibited and inaccessible, Virtual Proxy Networks kicked in,
making ‘VPN’ a household word across the region. Working through servers that circumvent the
government’s firewall, VPNs give users full access to the internet through proxy connections in
other countries. Free VPN services are particularly popular in regions with restricted internet like
China, Iran, and Turkey. Soon many Kashmiris were back on Facebook and Instagram, Al Jazeera
reported40, breathlessly announcing their return with messages like “Viva La VPN.” Meanwhile the
US-based multinational software firm Cisco Systems had been engaged by the J&K administration
to develop a stronger firewall technology to root out VPNs, The Print41 reported, even as their
widespread use led to a perpetual game of catch between authorities and users. “‘Which VPN you
are using’ has replaced ‘Salam Alaykum’ in Kashmir,” wrote another user, referring to the most
asked questions on social media.

Users had worked out creative work-arounds, which included having friends from outside Kashmir
download the VPN apps and carry them to Kashmir, or upload them onto services like Google Drive

36 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/82461587
37 https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-internet-white-list-net-neutrality
38 https://www.medianama.com/2020/01/223-analysis-of-whitelisted-urls-in-jammu-and-kashmir-how-usable-are-they
39 https://internetfreedom.in/foundation-for-media-professionals-approaches-j-k-govt-seeking-compliance-with-sc-judgement
40 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/la-vpn-kashmiris-vpn-apps-skirt-social-media-ban-200129084025204.html
41 https://theprint.in/india/us-firm-helps-jk-build-firewall-to-keep-social-media-off-limits-even-when-internet-returns/374096/?amp&__twitter_impression=true

78
 or Dropbox, both of which were on the ‘white-list’. A VPN on one phone, The Wire42 reported, could
then be shared through a variety of ways, including mobile-to-mobile file sharing applications like
Share It and Bluetooth. As specific mobile VPN apps started getting blocked users began to stock
multiple VPNs in their phones.

Institutions permitted to resume broadband access had also been asked to sign bonds confirming
that they would not allow IP addresses that allowed access to social media. “The bond also
barred the use of VPNs, Wi-Fi, encrypted files, videos and uploading of photos. All USB ports of the
computer will have to be disabled also,” The Wire42 reported. There was also a clause that made
the user or the company “responsible for the breach or misuse of Internet connectivity.”

Although the administration was only moderately successful in establishing a firewall, there
was some apprehension that VPN users might meanwhile also be putting their data at risk, The
Citizen43 reported. The vast majority of free VPN providers collect user data too, as a reading of
their Privacy Policy revealed. Data was provided to “unknown third parties that use it to segment
customers into profiles. In some cases, however, free VPN providers allow third parties to access
their customer base directly.” Although many young people in Kashmir are aware of the risks
that come with using free VPN services, they feel helpless. “Paid VPN services are beyond the
budget of a commoner, and the few websites the government allows us to access are of no use.
These VPN apps are the only option for us to remain connected to the outside world,” a student in
Srinagar told The Citizen.

In February 2020 the Cyber Cell of the J&K police in Kashmir went on to file an “open” First
Information Report against people found using VPNs under the stringent Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act (UAPA) for defying Government Orders and misusing Social Media platforms, The
Wire44 reported. “Miscreants are propagating rumours with regard to the current security scenario
of the Kashmir Valley,” a police spokesman told Press Trust of India45, and said these posts are

“propagating secessionist ideology and glorifying terror acts and terrorists.” Incriminating material
has also been seized in this regard, the spokesman noted, calling it “a favourite tool” on account
of the anonymity it gave its users, as also its wide reach. The first arrests made for misusing VPN
were that of Waseem Majeed Dar, a youth from Handwara, and Saqib Ahmed Lone from Budgam,
The Federal46 reported. Following this the police began checking smartphones for VPNs as a part
of routine checks. Multiple people spoke to The Wire47 about instances where local police and
Special Operation Group personnel, mostly on national highways, have been frisking people and
checking their phones for VPNs. “My mother made me delete all my VPNs before travelling to Delhi
for an examination. To confirm it she took my phone to a local mobile shop in our vicinity to check
whether I have uninstalled all my VPNs or not,” a student told The Wire. One security official in the
region noted that although most bans in Kashmir are symbolic in nature and sometimes short-
lived, the most recent one on VPNs has had a more tangible effect – becoming emblematic of the
people’s resistance to Indian rule. “Like a virtual insurgency in the digital world,” he told the South
China Morning Post48.

42 https://thewire.in/tech/kashmir-internet-vpn-firewall
43 https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/9/18408/Kashmiris-Using-Free-VPNs-are-Putting-their-Data-at-Risk
44 https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-fir-vpn-social-media
45 https://www.firstpost.com/india/jammu-and-kashmir-police-registers-case-against-several-people-for-using-vpns-to-circumvent-social-media-ban-8052711.html
46 https://thefederal.com/states/north/jammu-and-kashmir/in-kashmir-crackdown-on-vpn-users-shows-intention-to-muzzle-opinions
47 https://thewire.in/tech/kashmir-police-vpn-smartphone-checking
48 https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3052954/indias-crackdown-vpns-kashmir-seeks-quell-cyber-insurgency

79
 ENFORCEMENT IS BLINDSIDED TOO
Losing internet access may be counterproductive from a security point of view, as a recent study of
protests during internet shutdowns in India by Jan Rydzak49 of Stanford University’s Global Digital
Policy Incubator. He found that during outages, people are likely to “substitute non-violent tactics
for violent ones that are less reliant on effective communication and coordination.”

Contrary to the government’s claims of countering disinformation and strengthening law

enforcement, the moves to ban social media and throttle internet speeds were frequently
counterproductive for the State too. “This time, the internet shutdown in Indian-administered
Kashmir has actually led to rise of disinformation from social media accounts being operated from
Pakistan… [claiming] to show atrocities by the Indian government,” a fact checker for Agence
France Presse (AFP) in New Delhi told First Draft50. “The other half of disinformation is being
spread from social media accounts who sympathise with the Indian government, sharing old
images or video trying to portray normalcy and calm in Indian administered Kashmir,” he added.

“The quality of intelligence has gone down drastically since the shutdown started,” a senior
intelligence officer who follows the links between narcotics and arms in northern Kashmir, told
a reporter from Buzzfeed51: “Sure, it’s impacted militant networks too, but they don’t just rely
on phones. Their physical networks and infrastructure are well established as well.” To bust
these [narcotics] operations, intelligence officials rely on tracking the cellphones of the people
involved in them and intercepting calls and messages. “Whistleblowers would rarely call or text
us,” he says, “because those things aren’t encrypted. They would either message or call over an
encrypted app like WhatsApp or come and meet us in person.” The officer says he’s been unable
to connect with any of his sources over WhatsApp since August 2019. He now meets them only

in person and has had to reestablish most of his network. “The official reasons for shutting down
the internet such as to prevent anti-national activities are true,” he says, but “shutting down the
internet also impacts your ability to track the bad guys.”

For the Armed forces deployed in Kashmir during the shutdown the inability of soldiers to
communicate with families, while serving on stressful counter-insurgency operations far from
home, added its own pressures. Authorities have usually been tight-lipped about this aspect of
the massive military presence in Kashmir, with army and paramilitary formations continuously
deployed amidst what they consider a hostile civilian population. In the midst of claims that
criticism of the armed forces, and demands for criminal prosecution and accountability52 for
human rights violations by soldiers, demoralises the troops, it must be noted that more soldiers53
die due to suicides and fratricides in Jammu and Kashmir every year than in combat. The 2019
Annual report54 of JKCCS, shows a surge in the rate of suicide and fratricide among Indian armed
forces in Jammu and Kashmir in the years 2018 and 2019. From August 2019 when the lockdown
began there have been 18 suicidal deaths and 4 deaths due to fratricide of the Indian armed
forces stationed in Jammu and Kashmir. During the communications shutdown, amidst many
anecdotal instances of locally deployed soldiers reaching out to civilians in order to access any
form of communication and make contact with their homes in India, one apocryphal story stands
out. A uniformed soldier was seen visiting an ATM55 in Khwaja Bagh, Baramulla every single day.
To the mystification of the security guard who had been watching this ritual, all he drew on each
visit was Rs 100. Eventually the soldier provided an explanation: “The mobile number linked to
my bank account is used by my wife at home. When I withdraw cash from the ATM, she gets the
message on her mobile phone.This way, she comes to know that her husband is alive.”

49 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3330413
50 https://firstdraftnews.org/latest/telling-fact-from-fiction-inside-kashmirs-internet-blackout
51 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/no-email-no-whatsapp-no-internet-this-is-now-normal-life-in
52 https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/the-army-above-the-law/article10105947.ece
53 https://thewire.in/government/kashmir-armed-forces-suicides-fratricides
54 https://jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019-Annual-Human-Rights-Review.pdf
55 https://keralakaumudi.com/en/news/news.php?id=163416&u=this-way-she-comes-to-know-that-her-husband-is-alive-words-of-an-army-man-in-kashmir-163416
80
afterword
a digital siege amidst armed conflict
Through these pages, we have described how the digital siege affects the lives of ordinary
Kashmiris, resulting in a silencing and erasure of their human rights, opportunities, and
aspirations. The siege serves as a deliberate means of severing social, economic and political
connections between Kashmiris, while also isolating them from the world. For the already
vulnerable people of Jammu & Kashmir, who live amidst a state of perpetual war and permanent
emergency, it enacts a ‘digital apartheid’, a form of systemic and pervasive discriminatory
treatment and collective punishment.

Since August 5th 2019 armed hostilities between India and Pakistan have shown an increase1
along the disputed Line of Control (LOC) in Kashmir, with a consequent rise in civilian and military
deaths on both sides. Both countries have ignored the imperative for a global humanitarian
ceasefire in all ongoing armed conflicts for the duration of the Covid-19 epidemic put forth by
the UN Secretary General2, as ceasefire violations have seen a further alarming spike3 during
the course of the pandemic. In June 2020, hostilities also broke out4 in eastern Ladakh, at the
disputed border (Line of Actual Control, LAC) between India and China. This was followed by a
media blockade5 and three weeks of localized internet shutdown6 in border villages.

Meanwhile amidst a highly militarised and total Covid lockdown in Kashmir, Indian forces have
significantly escalated7 their military offensive against Kashmiri militants, with continuing internet
restrictions, and frequent temporary internet blackouts8 connected to each such armed encounter.
To justify the continuing restrictions on the internet, Indian authorities often cite the necessity
to protect the people of Kashmir from cross-border “terrorism” and the capacity of “modern
terrorists”9 to use social media for “recruitment” and “radicalisation.” Yet, the examples they have
relied upon, such as an armed encounter in Handwara10, show that the digital blockade had no
apparent effect on the ability of insurgents to enter Indian-controlled Kashmir, or carry out attacks
on military targets.

from blackout to throttling: after bhasin

The Indian Supreme Court’s constitutional judgment in Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India, was
widely acclaimed as a recognition of internet rights. Though the court did not acknowledge
internet access as an independent fundamental right, or declare the internet shutdown and
restrictions in Kashmir unconstitutional, it found that indefinite and blanket shutdowns of
the internet were impermissible, that restrictions must conform to the constitutional tests of
proportionality and necessity, and were subject to administrative and judicial review. The judgment
did not therefore end the digital siege of Kashmir, but inaugurated a new legalised regime of mass

1 http://indopakconflictmonitor.org/yearwise_cfv.php?year=2019
2 https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059972
3 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/rise-in-ceasefire-violations-amid-coronavirus-spike-makes-lives-of-border-dwellers-difficult-1688622-2020-06-13
4 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/world/asia/india-china-border-ladakh.html
5 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/06/17/no-road-ahead-reporting-galwan-from-gagangeer
6 https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-always-with-indian-army-but-restore-communication-services-ladakh-councillors-to-govt/355413
7 https://thewire.in/security/jk-militants-commanders-gunfights-army
8 https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-news-chinese-tension-haunts-ladakh-even-as-valley-remains-on-the-boil/303384
9 https://sirfnews.com/terrorists-in-handwara-used-mobile-tech
10 https://sirfnews.com/terrorists-in-handwara-used-mobile-tech

81
 surveillance, filtering, and internet-speed throttling through expansive executive orders. These
orders are issued every two weeks, and a total of 17 such extension orders have been issued from
January 2020 until now.

Fixed-line internet connectivity was first restored, initially for essential services and hospitals,
later for hotels and businesses, and then for the general public. It was however subject to
monitoring measures, such as scrutiny by a “nodal officer” and “MAC binding”11. 2G mobile
internet was later restored in a phased way, first to the Jammu districts, and then to two of the
most militarised districts in Kashmir – Kupwara and Bandipora. Simultaneously a regime of official
‘white-lists’ of accessible websites, as well as ‘black-lists’, including a ban on social media and
VPNs, was instituted. Meanwhile voice calling and text facilities were also restored for prepaid sim
cards across J&K.

Since March 2020, when 2G mobile internet was finally restored throughout Jammu & Kashmir,
the restriction on internet speeds has been routinely extended, through virtually identically-
worded orders. These orders cite vague and undefined intelligence and law enforcement inputs,
recent political developments, “rumours”, or the potential for “unrest” incited by “Anti-national
elements” as necessitating the curbs. Before proceeding to extend the restrictions on internet
speed one such fairly typical order, issued on April 4th 2020 in the midst of the national Covid
lockdown, reads “Where as reports have been received from intelligence and law enforcement
agencies, which among other things, bring out the factum of attempts made by Anti-national
elements (ANEs) to spread propaganda/ideologies [...] And whereas the internet speed
restrictions, have while enabling access to essential services and sites, not posed any hindrance to
COVID control measures, or access to educational content, but checked the unfettered misuse of
social media for incitement/propagating terror activities...”

Alongside the routine extensions of internet restrictions, frequent complete suspensions of mobile
internet connectivity through emergency police orders, that are later reviewed and invariably
endorsed by the executive authorities, have continued unabated. Since January 2020, when
partial 2G internet was first restored, 70 such temporary suspension orders12 have been issued.
These routinely occur on “high security” days such as Indian Independence day or Republic
Day, or in situations where authorities anticipate protests or public gatherings. This includes
religious occasions, the killings and funerals of popular militant commanders, instances of the
disproportionate use of force against Kashmiri civilians, or other human rights violations.

In one instance, following the July 2020 incident13 of enforced disappearance and alleged extra-
judicial killings of three civilians in Amshipora, Shopian, the police authorities issued an emergency
temporary internet suspension order, officially shutting it down for 30 hours throughout the
district. The order refers to the “neutralisation of 03 terrorists” and states “there was every
likelihood of misuse of data services by the Anti-national elements/OGWs [Over ground Workers]
to communicate with their sympathizers for mobilizing crowds, and disturb the law and order
situation subsequent to the encounter warranting the issuance of aforesaid directions…”

internet denial as counterinsurgency policy

According to police authorities there are currently between 100 and 200 active militants in Jammu
& Kashmir. Shutting down the entire internet and communications network, or causing large scale
network disruptions in Kashmir against this threat, are disproportionate responses that target

11 MAC binding forces a particular device to access the internet from a specific IP address. If either the MAC (Media Access Control) address or the IP address changes, the device will not be able to
access the internet. MAC-binding also enables authorities to trace a device on the basis of its online activity.
12 See Timeline in this report
13 https://thewire.in/rights/three-militants-killed-in-shopian-encounter-were-ordinary-labourers-families-allege

82
 the civilian population of internet users. All online activity is seen here as a potential breach of
national sovereignty and public order, and preemptively controlled. The Indian Army’s doctrine of
sub-conventional operations14 which discusses the means of waging a counter-insurgency war,
emphasises the “people centric” motivations of such operations. It states “military operations
should aim firstly at neutralizing all hostile elements in the conflict zone that oppose or retard
peace initiatives and secondly at transforming the will and attitudes of the people…The endeavor
should be to bring about a realisation that fighting the government is a ‘no win’ situation and that
their anti-government stance will only delay the return of peace and normalcy.’”

This policy of using a combination of “persuasive” and punitive measures against the Kashmiri
population to transform their “attitudes” and break their will to resist, runs through the Indian
judicial, executive and political apparatus. Throughout the last year, including in its submissions

THE INTERNET AMIDST CONFLICT

States frequently resort to unlawful suppressions of internet rights particularly in
contexts of military occupation, armed conflict and political resistance and pro-
tests. The technique of throttling internet speeds was first adopted by Israel in
Palestinian Occupied Territories. 3G internet remained unavailable here for twelve
years until 2018, as Israel blocked Palestinian mobile companies’ access to the
necessary frequencies.

The South Asian region has had a particularly dismal record with respect to digital
rights and freedoms. Myanmar facing an insurgency in the Rakhine province saw
the military junta suspend mobile internet communications in eight townships in
Rakhine state and one in Chin state in June 2019. Subsequently the shutdown was
partially lifted in some areas, but reinstated in all eight Rakhine townships in June
2020, making it the longest internet shutdown in the world. Afghanistan, in con-
trast, which is also engaged in a counter-insurgency war against the Taliban, does
not resort to internet disruptions, though it does censor and filter internet content
on moral grounds. Bangladesh has seen a prolonged internet and telecommuni-
cations blackout in the Cox’s Bazaar camp since September 2019, targeted at an
estimated 700,000 Rohingya refugees. Pakistan has had a history of using social
media restrictions, targeted regional shutdowns during religious holidays and pro-
tests, and prolonged telecommunications shutdowns in the insurgent Federally Ad-
ministered Tribal Areas (FATA, now dissolved). In the wake of widespread protests
against the abrogation of Article 370 by India, Azad Kashmir (the part of Kashmir
under Pakistani control) witnessed multiple internet disruptions in Aug-Sep 2019.

Even amidst these egregious examples the sustained and large scale nature of the
network disruptions that 12.5 million people in Jammu & Kashmir continue to be
subject to are unprecedented, particularly given India’s claims to being a stable and
functional constitutional democracy.

14 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4419437?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

83
 before the Supreme Court, the Indian state has stressed the necessity for the punitive
restrictions, coupled with promise of “phase-wise” internet restoration, dangled as a reward for
the “restoration of normalcy.” The day before he tendered his resignation the former Lieutenant
Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, G.C. Murmu stated15 that he had no objections if the restrictions
were removed. In an editorial16 titled, ‘It is time to allow J&K full-fledged political activity’, Ram
Madhav, former Kashmir Affairs Minister, and General Secretary of the ruling party wrote, “The
region has been largely quiet in the last nine months. The detractors would attribute this calm to
the excessive presence of security forces and arrests of leaders. Except for half-a-dozen senior
leaders, most politicians have been released. The presence of security forces too has been rolled
back significantly. Even then, people are not on the streets pelting stones and shouting azadi
[Freedom]. It is time the state administration appreciates this and pays the people handsomely for
their openness.”

In its latest submission17 before the Supreme Court in the case of Foundation for Media
Professionals v. Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, the Solicitor General of India informed the
court on August 11th 2020 that the government was considering restoring high speed internet in
two (out of twenty) districts on a “trial basis”18. The outcome of the experiment would be reviewed
after two months and its impact assessed by the State Level Committee every week. This was
being done despite the “current security situation” he stated. Like the illegal “bonds of good
behaviour”19 and the undertakings20 coercively extracted from political prisoners (which make
their release conditional upon promises of not further participating in protests or political activity)
the digital siege punishes Kashmiris for their political beliefs.

This report is a missive addressed to the human rights and digital rights community about the
breadth and forms of this collective punishment. It is also a testament to the resilience and
resourcefulness of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, who refuse to be silenced.

15 https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-4g-ban-internet-high-speed-gc-murmu
16 https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/jammu-kashmir-article-370-abrogation-kashmir-4g-services-internet-restoration-domicile-certificate-ram-madhav-6419914/
17 https://www.medianama.com/2020/08/223-4g-internet-to-be-restored-in-2-districts-of-jammu-kashmir
18 On August 16th 2020 high speed internet was restored on postpaid mobile connections in 2 out of 20 districts in Jammu & Kashmir through an executive order. The order was effective until 8th
September, 2020.
19 https://kashmirreader.com/2020/08/06/504-separatist-leaders-signed-good-behaviour-bond-before-release-from-detention-dgp-dilbagh-singh
20 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/07/29/will-release-hc-bar-leader-qayoom-detained-under-psa-jk-admin-tells-sc

84
internet
siege
timeline

300 days
 2019
02/08

03/08

04/08

05/08

06/08

07/08

08/08

09/08
Pilgrims and tourists asked to leave 1 J&K Reorganisation Bill,
2019 passed by Lok Sabha
Section 144 imposed
in Srinagar 2 Landlines to be restored
“soon”, says Govt 4
3 former chief ministers
STATE
of J&K detained UN Chief Guterres urges
maximum restraint by
J&K Reorganisation Bill, 2019 India and Pakistan 5
passed by Rajya Sabha 3
Ahead of Eid, phones,
internet “partially
restored”, says Govt

4G 4G INTERNET SHUTDOWN

2G INTERNET SHUTDOWN

MOB MOBILE SERVICE SUSPENDED

TEL LANDLINE SHUTDOWN

Hospitals, emergency services, general Srinagar protests: 1 dies, scores arrested 6

public lose phones: Airport exempted
Splitting of J&K opposed in Kargil 7
Detention of Syed Ali Shah Geelani,
Hurriyat G leader, continues Journalist Qazi Shibli
booked under PSA
Public movement restricted,
no meetings, rallies Srinagar protests:
Government forces fire live
PEOPLE

Educational institutions shut down bullets, tear gas, rubber-

coated steel bullets 8
AMARNATH YATRA

20 with pellet-gun injuries

admitted to SMHS hospital 9
DAY 1

1 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/panic-kashmir-india-asks-tourists-pilgrims-leave-190802145955424.html
2 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/jammu-and-kashmir-curfew-section-144-imposed-1577218-2019-08-05
3 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/massive-uproar-in-rajya-sabha-over-abolition-of-provisions-of-article-370/article28821618.ece
10/08

11/08

12/08

13/08

14/08

15/08

16/08

17/08
Govt accuses BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters P.M. Modi’s Independence Day speech lists
of fabricating news of protests 10 Kashmir changes amongst achievements 15

Anuradha Bhasin vs. Union of India: Petition J&K Governor unfurls Indian flag in Srinagar
filed in Supreme Court contends that watched by a handful of officials 16
communication blockade, restrictions on
movement violate fundamental rights of
journalists in Kashmir

Eid passed peacefully says Govt, “markets

open, landlines, ATM’s functional” 11

Tehseen Poonawala vs. Union of India:

Supreme Court refuses to interfere
with communications lockdown, says
authorities need time to restore order 12

2G INTERNET IN PARTS OF
JAMMU DIVISION RESTORED
KASHMIR AND BORDER
DISTRICT (POONCH, RAJOURI,
KISHTWAR, DODA, RAMBAN)
SHUTDOWN CONTINUES

LANDLINE 17/100
EXCHANGES IN KASHMIR

Media Facilitation Centre set up Civil society report ‘Kashmir Caged’ released “The
with 1 phone, 4 computers 13 curfew was total... The streets of Srinagar were empty,
all institutions and establishments closed (shops,
Kashmir remains under schools, libraries, petrol pumps, government offices,
curfew on Eid, ban on religious banks). Only some ATMs and chemists’ shops–and all
congregations 14 police stations–were open” 17

All flights cancelled Local politicians absent from Independence

day event, many reported under house arrest 18
Long queues form at District
Collectorates to make calls Massive protest in London
against abrogation of Art 370 19

Protests worldwide as Kashmiri diaspora

uses social media to mobilise opinion 20

4 https://theprint.in/india/landline-connections-to-be-restored-soon-in-jk-mobile-network-will-have-to-wait/274274/
5 https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/un-chief-invokes-shimla-agreement-calls-for-maximum-restraint-on-kashmir/
article28919234.ece
6 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/india-revokes-kashmir-special-status-190904143838166.html
7 https://apnews.com/e103a1c8076e45159eac161dbce4984e
8 https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019/08/indian-troops-fire-tear-gas-mass-protests-erupt-srinagar-190809151858216.html?__
twitter_impression=true
9 https://thewire.in/rights/pellet-blindings-a-reminder-that-on-the-ground-kashmirs-special-status-continues
10 https://scroll.in/article/933758/fact-check-did-bbc-al-jazeera-and-reuters-fabricate-reports-about-a-large-protest-in-kashmir
18/08

19/08

20/08

21/08

22/08

23/08

24/08

25/08
Govt orders 200 primary schools to UN Human Rights Rapporteurs urge India to end
open: attendance is low. Eventually communications shutdown in Kashmir, their statement
they open only 6 months later 21 describes it as “collective punishment” 25

Whatsapp group admins to register with Police, says Kathua

Magistrate, restricts message uploading to ‘only admins’ 26

Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi

‘sent back’ from Srinagar 27

Anuradha Bhasin vs. Union of India: Press

Council of India seeks to intervene but defends
the communication blockade “in the interest of
the integrity and sovereignty of the nation’ 28

‘No shortage of essential items in J&K,

curbs saved lives’, says J&K Governor 29

At least 4,000 reported arrested, many Tear gas, pellet gun injuries mount
under Public Safety Act. “Most of them in hospitals, reports Reuters 30
were flown out of Kashmir because
prisons here have run out of capacity,” a Indian bureaucrat Kanan Gopinathan
magistrate told AFP… “Another security resigns over suspension of
official said “thousands are jailed” but fundamental rights in Kashmir 31
that the figure did not include other
residents whose detentions at police
stations had not been recorded.” 22

Soura area of Srinagar barricades

itself to keep security forces out 23

Gun battle in Baramulla: 2 killed 24

11 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kashmir-live-updates-eid-ul-azha-in-jammu-and-kashmir-restrictions-curfew-
continue-1579871-2019-08-12
12 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/sc-refuses-to-order-lifting-of-curbs-in-jammu-and-kashmir-says-govt-needs-time/story-
l7DlVmiz2oHQj1hWS0zP4K.html
13 http://nwmindia.org/international/news-behind-the-barbed-wire-kashmir-s-information-blockade-2
14 http://www.nchro.org/index.php/2019/08/14/kashmir-caged-a-fact-finding-report-by-jean-dreze-kavita-krishnan-maimoona-mollah-and-
vimal-bhai/
15 https://thewire.in/politics/independence-day-speech-narendra-modi-kashmir-370
16 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-srinagar/in-kashmirs-main-city-only-a-few-celebrate-indias-independence-day-
idUSKCN1V517M
26/08

27/08

28/08

29/08

30/08

31/08

01/09

02/09

Kashmir Press Club asks Govt “to restore

mobile phones, internet and telephone
landlines to journalists and media
outlets including newspapers…” It said
currently, hundreds of journalists—both
local and visiting and media workers—
are forced to wait in queues for their
turn to file assignments at the makeshift
Media Facilitation Centre 32

17 http://www.nchro.org/index.php/2019/08/14/kashmir-caged-a-fact-finding-report-by-jean-dreze-kavita-krishnan-maimoona-mollah-and-
vimal-bhai/
18 https://theprint.in/india/on-i-day-governor-assures-jk-identity-safe-as-spectators-chant-bharat-mata-ki-jai/277402/
19 https://in.reuters.com/article/india-kashmir-britain/thousands-protest-in-britain-for-kashmir-outside-indian-high-commission-
idINKCN1V51AJ
20 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/red-dot-symbolised-kashmiri-resistance-india-move-190815113019954.html
21 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/normalcy-kashmir-students-stay-schools-190819104606058.html
22 https://www.france24.com/en/20190818-india-kashmir-4000-detained-region-stripped-autonomy
23 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/kashmir-enclave-blocks-entry-indian-troops-190820090426828.html
24 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/killed-gun-battle-indian-administered-kashmir-190821062557343.html
25 https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24909&LangID=E
26 https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/jk-whatsapp-groups-to-be-registered-with-police-in-kathua-to-avoid-rumour-
mongering/474794
27 https://in.reuters.com/article/india-kashmir-opposition-leaders/opposition-leaders-denied-entry-to-kashmir-sent-back-from-airport-
idINKCN1VE07K
03/09

04/09

05/09

06/09

07/09

08/09

09/09

10/09
Internet kiosk set up in Internet kiosks set up in all
Kupwara “for essential 10 districts, Govt claims 37
purposes” Govt says 33

INTERNET SERVICES SHUT

RESTORED KUPWARA / HANDWARA

LANDLINE IN 19 MORE EXCHANGES IN SRINAGAR

Network of Women in Media / Free Internet kiosks are too few, mostly
Speech Collective release report located inside Govt offices 38
documenting media freedom
violations, ask for restoring internet
shutdown immediately, enable high
speed internet connectivity, and
restore all landlines and mobile
telephones with priority given to
journalists and media houses 34

Teenager with head injuries,

pellet wounds received
earlier dies in hospital 35

Long queues at landline phones

in offices or homes, calls ‘don’t
go through’ say residents 36
DAY 31

28 https://thewire.in/media/press-council-of-india-media-restrictions-kashmir
29 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/phone-restrictions-helped-save-lives-in-jammu-kashmir-governor-satya-pal-malik/story-
YSNWksjorJcx1ss4Ev3M4K.html
30 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/150-treated-tear-gas-pellet-gun-injuries-kashmir-190823052847698.html
11/09

12/09

13/09

14/09

15/09

16/09

17/09

18/09
Ministry of Home Affairs says all Former Chief Minister
landlines restored, schools functioning, Farooq Abdullah, formally
health institutions fully operational 39 arrested under the Public
Safety Act 44
Governor launches
marketing intervention for Former Chief Minister Ghulam
fruit growers, to sell directly Nabi Azad permitted restricted
to government-run NAFED 40 visit to Kashmir following
intervention by Supreme Court 45
Enakshi Ganguly and
Shanta Sinha vs. Union of UN Security Council holds
India: seeks intervention closed-door meeting on Kashmir
on illegal detention of - no determinations made 46
children in Kashmir 41

End communications blackout in Kashmir says

US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. Joins
Congressman James P McGovern to ask US
Secretary of State to press Indian Govt 42

Thousands detained in Kashmir

crackdown: most listed as “stone
pelters and other miscreants” 43

Image © www.instagram.com/countingdaysk

31 https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ias-officer-kannan-gopinathan-quits-says-disturbed-over-restrictions-in-jammu-and-kashmir-2090041
32 https://theprint.in/india/kashmir-press-club-says-restrictions-aimed-at-forcing-journalists-to-toe-a-particular-line/286212/
33 https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/internet-kiosk-set-up-in-kupwara-for-essential-purposes-119090601451_1.html
34 http://nwmindia.org/images/articles_pdf/Kashmir_2019_News_Behind_the_Barbed_Wire_A_Report.pdf
35 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/kashmiri-teenager-dies-pellet-tear-gas-shell-wounds-hospital-190904181621345.html
36 https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/india-landline-phone-service-fully-restored-kashmir-65405243
37 https://zeenews.india.com/india/normalcy-returning-to-jammu-and-kashmir-internet-kiosks-installed-in-all-districts-2232824.html
38 https://news.yahoo.com/overload-train-kashmirs-internet-oasis-053551177.html
39 https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2019/09/11/jammu-and-kashmir-mha-says-landlines-restored-schools-functioning.html
40 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/j-k-guv-launches-scheme-for-direct-apple-sale/story-hCEY8VZWH9LVBbC9h3XopK.html
19/09

20/09

21/09

22/09

23/09

24/09

25/09

26/09
Enakshi Ganguly and Shanta Sinha vs. Union US President Trump “willing to
of India:. Supreme Court asks Juvenile Justice mediate” on Kashmir if asked
Committee of J&K High Court to submit report by Pakistan and India 49
on allegations of illegal detention of children in
the wake of abrogation of Article 370 47

Apples rot in orchards as Kashmir Indian women’s fact-finding team presents

economy goes into tailspin 48 report, asks Govt to Immediately restore all
communication lines in Kashmir including
internet and mobile networks 50
DAY 51

Image © www.instagram.com/countingdaysk

41 https://thewire.in/law/kashmir-children-detained
42 https://scroll.in/latest/937056/kashmir-two-us-lawmakers-urge-india-to-end-communication-blockade-release-detained-individuals
43 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-detentions/thousands-detained-in-indian-kashmir-crackdown-official-data-reveals-
idUSKCN1VX142
27/09

28/09

29/09

30/09

01/10

02/10

03/10

04/10
Anuradha Bhasin vs. Union of India: State
argues “all restrictions are temporary and
are being periodically reviewed…”

Supporters of JKLF begin march

from Pakistan-administered
Kashmir to Line of Control 51

44 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/former-jammu-and-kashmir-cm-farooq-abdullah-detained-under-public-safety-act/story-
sO99ydWqolNmQyYyAo3L9K.html
45 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sc-allows-ghulam-nabi-azad-to-visit-jammu-and-kashmir-with-riders/article29429551.ece
46 https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/16/asia/un-security-council-kashmir-intl/index.html
47 https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/sc-adjourns-hearing-of-plea-alleging-illegal-detention-of-children-in-
j-k-119101501017_1.html
48 https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/apples-rot-kashmir-orchards-lockdown-puts-economy-tails-190919084034824.html
49 https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/willing-to-mediate-on-kashmir-issue-if-both-countries-want-donald-trump-to-imran-
khan-1602405-2019-09-23
50 http://sacw.net/article14169.html
51 https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/hundreds-from-pakistan-to-march-toward-kashmir-border/1602724
05/10

06/10

07/10

08/10

09/10

10/10

11/10

12/10
Govt orders colleges to open:
attendance dismal, exams announced 53

US Congress committee urges India

to lift ‘devastating’ Kashmir curbs 52

Image © www.instagram.com/countingdaysk

52 https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/us-congress-committee-urges-india-to-end-communication-blackout-in-
kashmir-119100800255_1.html
53 https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/oct/10/colleges-open-in-kashmir-government-announces-exams-amid-dismal-student-
turnouts-2045491.html
 13/10

14/10

15/10

16/10

17/10

18/10

19/10

20/10
State Legislative Council abolished
New administrative secretariat for
Ladakh announced 55
STATE

4G
2G MOBILE INTERNET AND INTERNET SERVICE REMAIN BLOCKED
PREPAID REMAIN BLOCKED

MOB SMS SERVICES BLOCKED HOURS AFTER BEING RESTORED

BSNL POSTPAID RESTORED

TEL
In Shopian attack, driver of
truck carrying apples killed 54
PEOPLE

54 https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/j-k-two-unidentified-terrorists-kill-truck-driver-in-shopian-119101401394_1.html
55 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/jammu-kashmir-legislative-council-abolished/articleshow/71637205.
cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
21/10

22/10

23/10

24/10

25/10

26/10

27/10

28/10
Anuradha Bhasin vs. Union of India:
State argues that “Law and order
are primarily the domain of the
administrative authorities concerned as
they are best suited to assess the ground
situation and handle such situations…”

Image © www.instagram.com/countingdaysk
29/10

30/10

31/10

01/11

02/11

03/11

04/11

05/11
J&K State formally bifurcated
into Union Territory of J&K and
Union Territory of Ladakh

6 State public commissions terminated

including Human Rights Commission,
Accountability Commission, Information
Commission, Commission for Protection
of Women and Child Rights 56

56 https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/j-and-k-to-lose-six-key-commissions-to-centre-along-with-statehood
 06/11

07/11

08/11

09/11

10/11

11/11

12/11
DAY 100
13/11

Image © www.instagram.com/countingdaysk
14/11

15/11

16/11

17/11

18/11

19/11

20/11

21/11
Only 1% of Kashmir’s apple production procured
by Govt. in this season Lok Sabha informed 57

All schools and colleges open in J&K, says

Minister of State for Home, claims 98%
attendance; all hospitals and healthcare
centres are “fully” operational 58

57 https://thewire.in/agriculture/kashmir-apple-sales
58 https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/all-schools-colleges-in-j-k-open-with-98-attendance-
government-1620846-2019-11-20
 22/11

23/11

24/11

25/11

26/11

27/11

28/11

29/11
Anuradha Bhasin vs. Union of India: Supreme
Court reserves its verdict says that it is impossible
for 7 million people to be “locked down”
STATE

4G
2G
MOB
TEL
PEOPLE
 30/11

01/12

02/12

03/12

04/12

05/12

06/12

07/12

Image © www.instagram.com/countingdaysk
08/12

09/12

10/12

11/12

12/12

13/12

14/12

15/12
Enakshi Ganguly and Shanta Sinha vs.
Union of India: - Supreme Court dismisses
petition regarding illegal detention of minors
by security forces. It says Juvenile Justice
Committee of J&K High Court found no
substance in the allegations 59

Schools close for winter vacation due

to cold, to reopen in late Feb 2020

59 https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/no-minor-illegally-detained-in-kashmir-sc-quotes-hc-report/1684717
16/12

17/12

18/12

19/12

20/12

21/12

22/12

23/12
24/12

25/12

26/12

27/12

28/12

29/12

30/12

31/12
KASHMIR:BROADBAND AND MOBILE PHONE INTERNET BLOCKED
KARGIL RESTORED
JAMMU LOW SPEED BROADBAND FUNCTIONAL

Kargil local religious leaders

appeal to people not to misuse
the restored internet facility 60

60 https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-mobile-internet-restored-in-kargil-after-145-days/344748
 2020
01/01

02/01

03/01

04/01

05/01

06/01

07/01

08/01
STATE

4G
2G
MOB
TEL
‘Digital refugees’ observed as people
travel out of valley to use internet 61
PEOPLE
DAY 150

61 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/05/the-personal-and-economic-cost-of-kashmirs-internet-ban
09/01

10/01

11/01

12/01

13/01

14/01

15/01

16/01
Anuradha Bhasin vs. Union of India: Telecom Service Providers to initiate verification
Supreme Court orders review of all of subscribers in order to “consider” restoration
restrictions in Kashmir within a week; of mobile internet to post paid users
indefinite suspension of people’s rights
amounted to an abuse of power it says. 400 additional internet kiosks to be set-up
But SC does not revoke the shutdown or
declare it unconstitutional 62 Anuradha Bhasin vs. Union of India: State says
844 e-terminals were established for the general
public. Two previous affidavits made no reference
to them. Also 69 counters for tourists, separate
terminals for GST filing, exam application forms

MOBILE INTERNET SHUTDOWN

RESTORED (1 WEEK) JAMMU 5 DIST, KASHMIR 2 DIST

VOICE & TEXT FOR PREPAID SIMS

Conditional access to broadband internet for

hospitals, banks, essential services: with Firewalls,
Mac Binding, and restricted to a “white-list”of
approved sites. No Social Media. Institutions to
ensure access to authorised users only 63

62 https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/bhasin-v-union-of-india/
63 http://jkhome.nic.in/03(TSTS)%202020.pdf
17/01

18/01

19/01

20/01

21/01

22/01

23/01

24/01

RESTORED (1 WEEK)
RESTORED (1 WEEK): JAMMU 10 DIST, KASHMIR 2 DIST

Restricted access only to whitelisted sites 64 Data services only on verified

prepaid and postpaid sim cards

Access limited to whitelist, no

social media apps or VPN 65

Image © www.instagram.com/countingdaysk

64 https://thewire.in/government/2g-data-services-to-be-restored-throughout-jammu-kashmir-union-territory
65 https://thewire.in/government/2g-data-services-to-be-restored-throughout-jammu-kashmir-union-territory
25/01

26/01

27/01

28/01

29/01

30/01

31/01

01/02
Indian Republic Day Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India: Foundation for
Media Professionals approaches J&K Govt demanding
Suspension on account of compliance with Supreme Court guidelines. FMP
encounter “and likelihood of has also sought disclosure of all past orders and
misuse of data services by the recommendations of the Review Committee 69
Anti National Elements to disturb
the law and order situation”

RESTRICTION EXTENDED

ANANTNAG DISTRICT
RESTORED

Mobile internet restored after nearly 6 months

“Temporarily” suspended by evening, to resume after 26th Jan

Several hundred websites unblocked

Tentative end to the world’s longest

internet shutdown in a democracy 66

Encounter in Arwani, Anantnag: 1 killed 67

Analysis of ‘whitelist’ by researchers: of 301

sites only 126 were usable “to some degree” 68
DAY 175

66 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/world/asia/kashmir-internet-shutdown-india.html
67 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/anantnag-hizb-militant-killed-in-encounter-18-days-after-he-joined-terror-
ranks-1640753-2020-01-27
02/02

03/02

04/02

05/02

06/02

07/02

08/02

09/02
Misuse of VPNs after restoration of Suspension “in the interest of security
internet, say police. Terrorists using of state and maintaining public order”
it to establish contact with Pakistan
says Director General Police 70

RESTRICTION EXTENDED

ACROSS KASHMIR (7HOURS)

Death anniversary of Parliament

attack accused M Afzal Guru 71

68 https://www.medianama.com/2020/01/223-analysis-of-whitelisted-urls-in-jammu-and-kashmir-how-usable-are-they/
69 https://mediatrack.in/node/577
70 https://thewire.in/tech/kashmir-internet-vpn-firewall
71 https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/j-k/2g-mobile-internet-services-suspended-in-kashmir-again-38299
10/02

11/02

12/02

13/02

14/02

15/02

16/02

17/02
Suspension “apprehending misuse of Govt says social media sites accessed
data services by the anti national/anti “for coordinating terror activities” and
social elements by accessing the social to “upload provocative material aimed
media sites illegally through VPNs” at disturbing public order” 74

Suspension “in view of the Police registers FIR against “social media
rumor circulating on social abusers” under stringent UAPA law75, as
Media through misuse of VPNs” well as Indian Penal Code Act and IT Act.
Later withdrew application of Section
66-A (b) IT Act76 “since this section has
been previously struck down by the
Supreme Court” 77

Police focus on VPN use: invoke

UAPA for “propagating rumours,
secessionist ideology and
glorifying terror acts/terrorists” 78

RESTRICTION EXTENDED

ACROSS KASHMIR (8HOURS)

ACROSS KASHMIR (13HOURS)

Death anniversary of JKLF ISP’s to ensure conditional access:

leader Maqbool Bhat 72 with Firewalls, Mac Binding, and
restricted to a “white-list”of approved
Rumours about health of Syed Ali sites. No Social Media or VPNs
Shah Geelani, Hurriyat G leader 73
Former bureaucrat Shah
Faesal booked under PSA 79

Checking of smartphones for VPN

apps is part of routine security
checks on highways, in markets 80

72 https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/internet-snapped-in-kashmir-on-jklf-leaders-death-anniv/1731293
73 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/02/13/internet-snapped-in-kashmir-after-rumours-surrounding-geelanis-health/
74 https://www.medianama.com/2020/02/223-jammu-kashmir-social-media-vpn-police/
75 https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-fir-vpn-social-media
76 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-internet/india-cracks-down-on-use-of-vpns-in-kashmir-to-get-around-social-media-
ban-idUSKBN20D0LT
77 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/jk-police-lodges-fir-against-kashmir-people-accessing-internet-via-vpn/
article30850846.ece
78 https://indianexpress.com/article/india/jammu-kashmir-police-invoke-uapa-fir-social-media-6273115/
79 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/02/15/ex-ias-topper-shah-faesal-booked-under-psa/
80 https://thewire.in/tech/kashmir-police-vpn-smartphone-checking
18/02

19/02

20/02

21/02

22/02

23/02

24/02

25/02
Suspension due to encounter “and Suspension due to encounter “and likelihood
likelihood of misuse of data by Anti of misuse of data by Anti national elements”
national elements”
Internet Freedom Foundation asks Home
Department J&K about unlawful blocking
of VPN access

KULGAM 10H
AVANTIPURA POLICE DIST 4H
BARAMULLA DIST 8H ANANTNAG 10H

Amnesty International says “Indian Govt forces kill two militants in Anantnag 84
government needs to put humanity first
and let the people of Kashmir speak” 81 Schools across Kashmir reopen
after nearly seven months 85
Govt forces kill three militants in Tral 82

Youth from Handwara

arrested for “misusing” VPN 83
DAY 201

81 https://amnesty.org.in/news-update/jk-police-using-repressive-counter-terrorism-law-to-muzzle-access-to-social-media/
82 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/security-forces-kill-three-terrorists-in-jammu-and-kashmir-s-tral/story-
wdnMUfW2WR5nTLNM2DghUI.html
83 https://thekashmirwalla.com/2020/02/youth-from-north-kashmirs-handwara-arrested-for-misusing-vpn/?fbclid=IwAR2tznG1buciMyyPHB-
ScmHDKphAmLE1budbaHPXjHABY6M0Cmz6zdpFg70
26/02

27/02

28/02

29/02

01/03

02/03

03/03

04/03
PUCL, J&K High Court Bar Association vs
Union of India:. Supreme Court declines
reference to a larger 7-judge bench for
petitions challenging the constitutional
validity of abrogation of Article 370 86

Govt Seeks Cisco Help To

Block Social Media In J&K 87

Internet Bandwidth smothered

to block VPNs: curtails access to
“whitelisted” websites too 88

84 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/02/22/south-kashmir-2-militants-killed-in-bijbehara-gunfight/
85 https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-school-students
86 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/supreme-court-refuses-to-refer-article-370-cases-to-larger-bench-1651500-2020-03-02
87 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/03/03/govt-seeks-cisco-help-to-block-social-media-in-jk/
88 https://www.newsclick.in/Kashmir-Govt-Smothers-Internet-Bandwidth-Block-VPN
05/03

06/03

07/03

08/03

09/03

10/03

11/03

12/03
Suspension due to encounter “and likelihood
of misuse of data by Anti national elements”

KULGAM 7.5H
SHOPIAN DIST 6.5H
ANANTNAG 10H

Ban on social media temporarily lifted 89 Govt forces kill two militants in Shopian 90

89 https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/04/india-restores-social-media-access-in-kashmir-for-2-weeks/
90 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/03/09/south-kashmir-gunfight-underway-in-shopian-militant-killed/
13/03

14/03

15/03

16/03

17/03

18/03

19/03

20/03
Suspension due to encounter “and likelihood of
misuse of data by Anti national elements”

RESTRICTION EXTENDED

KULGAM 12H
ANANTNAG DIST 10H

Govt forces kill four militants in Anantnag 91

91 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/03/15/south-kashmir-4-militants-killed-in-anantnag-gunfight/
21/03

22/03

23/03

24/03

25/03

26/03

27/03

28/03
UN Secy Gen appeals for ceasefire Foundation for Media Professionals vs Union
in ongoing armed conflicts in light of of India: petition before Supreme Court for
global Covid pandemic 92 restoration of 4G internet in J&K argues that
internet slowdown during COVID-19 violative of
PM Narendra Modi fundamental rights to healthcare 93
announces all India
lockdown starting midnight

RESTRICTION EXTENDED

92 https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2020-03-23/secretary-generals-appeal-for-global-ceasefire
93 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u8T6zldNXlabjA0igdXObA55fyX2_4Bz/view
29/03

30/03

31/03

01/04

02/04

03/04

04/04

05/04
Restrictions Extended “in view of
attempts made by ANEs to spread
propaganda and fake news and
disturb public order and co ordinate
acts of terrorism and instances of
misuse of data and circulation of
fake news regarding COVID-19”

Suspension due to encounter

“and likelihood of misuse of
data by Anti national elements”

Suspension due to encounter

“and likelihood of misuse of data
by Anti national elements”

RESTRICTION EXTENDED

KULGAM DIST 13H

KULGAM DIST 9H

Govt forces kill four In Kulgam 94

International Federation of Journalists

starts campaign titled ‘Postcards From
Kashmir’ to end ban on 4G internet 95

Kupwara gunbattle rages for 5th

Day, 5 Soldiers among 10 Killed 96

94 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/04/south-kashmir-4-militants-killed-in-kulgam-gunfight/
95 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/07/ifj-campaign-to-end-ban-on-4g-internet-titled-postcards-from-kashmir/
96 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/05/5-militants-3-soldiers-killed-along-loc-in-kupwara/
06/04

07/04

08/04

09/04

10/04

11/04

12/04

13/04
Suspension due to Suspension “in view of the likelihood of
encounter “and likelihood misuse of data services by Anti-national
of misuse of data by Anti elements”District officials said decision
national elements” of temporary suspension of internet lay
with ‘higher-ups

Suspension due to encounter “and likelihood

of misuse of data services by Anti national
elements/OGW for communication”

J&K High Court Seeks Status Report On 4G

Restoration as “non-availability of high-
speed Internet was hampering studies of
students confined to their homes due to the
lockdown to curb coronavirus cases 99

KULGAM DIST 15H

SOPORE POLICE DIST 5.5H
KUPWARA POLICE DIST 6H

Kupwara gunfight: 3 more Heavy artillery fire exchange on LOC in

soldiers succumb 97 Kupwara. Village had been used as a base
for Bofors artillery guns, locals said 100
Govt forces kill militant
commander in Sopore 98 7-yr-old among 3 dead in Kupwara shelling 101:
homes damaged, children terrorised, village
turned into a war zone 102

Militants flee after nocturnal gunfight in Kulgam 103

DAY 250

97 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/06/kupwara-gunfight-3-more-soldiers-succumb-toll-mounts-to-8/
98 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/08/jaish-commander-killed-in-sopore-gunfight-police/
99 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/11/jk-high-court-seeks-status-report-on-4g-restoration-as-students-suffer/
100 https://thekashmirpress.com/2020/04/13/detailed-read-ammo-landed-60km-deep-inside-loc-in-kupwara-intense-shelling-after-1971-
war-say-residents/
14/04

15/04

16/04

17/04

18/04

19/04

20/04

21/04
Suspension due to encounter Suspension due to encounter
“and likelihood of misuse of data “and likelihood of misuse of data
services by Anti national elements/ services by Anti national elements/
OGW for communication” OGW for communication”

Foundation for Media Professionals vs

Union of India: Supreme Court asks
about petition pending before J&K
High Court, seeks information about
number of Covid-19 cases in J&K

S. Quereshi & Private Schools

Association of J&K vs Union of India:
seeking restoration of 4G internet
listed for hearing. 27,00,000 students
hampered without access to high
speed internet, it says

RESTRICTION EXTENDED

SHOPIAN DIST 11H SHOPIAN DIST 18.5H

Govt forces kill two militants In Shopian 104 Govt forces kill four
militants in Shopian 105

Woman photojournalist booked

under UAPA for social media posts 106

Kashmir Police file a case against

journalist Gowhar Geelani call his
social media posts “prejudicial to the
national integrity, sovereignty and
security of India” 107

101 https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/j-k/7-yr-old-among-3-dead-in-kupwara-shelling-70382
102 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/india-accused-kashmir-human-shields-border-war-pakistan
103 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/11/militants-escape-after-brief-gunfight-in-south-kashmirs-kulgam-police/
104 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/17/2-militants-killed-in-shopian-encounter-crpf-jawan-injured-in-pulwama/
105 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/22/south-kashmir-4-militants-killed-in-overnight-gunbattle/
106 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/20/female-photojournalist-in-kashmir-booked-for-social-media-posts/
107 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/21/kashmir-police-files-case-against-journalist-gowhar-geelani/
22/04

23/04

24/04

25/04

26/04

27/04

28/04

29/04
Suspension due to encounter Suspension due to encounter “and likelihood
“and attempt by the terrorists to of misuse of data services by Anti national
abduct a police personnel” elements/OGW for communication”

Suspension due to encounter

“and likelihood of misuse of data
services by Anti national elements/
OGW for communication”

Suspension due to encounter

“and likelihood of misuse of data
services by Anti national elements/
OGW for communication”

Suspension due to encounter

“and likelihood of misuse of data
services by Anti national elements/
OGW for communication”

RESTRICTION
ANANTNAG
EXTENDED
DIST 2G SHUT FOR 24H
KULGAM SHOPIAN PULWAMA &
DIST 20H ANANTNAG 2G SHUT FOR 19H
KULGAM DIST & AVANTIPORA POLICE DIST 13H
ANANTNAG DIST 2G SHUT FOR 10H
SHOPIAN & PULWAMA 2G SHUT FOR 24H

Govt forces kill two Govt forces kill four

militants in Kulgam 108 militants In Kulgam 110

Govt forces kill two Govt forces kill three

militants in Awantipora 109 militants in Lower Munda 111

Govt forces kill one

militant in Shopian 112

Govt forces kill three

militants in Shopian 113

108 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/24/2-militants-killed-during-kidnap-bid-police/
109 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/25/militants-killed-in-awantipora-quietly-buried-in-sonamarg/
110 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/26/4-militants-killed-in-kulgam-gunfight-police/
111 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/04/27/3-militants-killed-in-qazigund-gunfight/
112 https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/one-militant-killed-in-shopian-encounter/1817550
113 https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/three-militants-killed-in-encounter-in-shopian/1818068
30/04

01/05

02/05

03/05

04/05

05/05

06/05

07/05
Suspension due to Foundation for Media Professionals vs Union of
encounter “and likelihood India: Supreme Court reserves order in petition 117
of misuse of data services seeking restoration of 4G internet in J&K Govt
by Anti national elements/ argues that the internet was slow enough to foil the
OGW for communication” activities of terrorists but fast enough to not hamper
the activities of ordinary citizens 118
Suspension due
to encounter and Suspension due to encounter and “in view
“likelihood of misuse of posting of provocative material online
of data services by Anti and there being an extreme possibility of
national elements/OGW spreading the same to adjoining areas”
for communication”
Suspension due to encounter

Suspension due to encounter and “likelihood

of misuse of data services by Anti national
elements/OGW for communication”

2G SHUT FOR HANDWARA

POLICE DIST 24H KASHMIR VALLEY FROM 0900H
2G SHUT FOR PULWAMA DIST 32H
HANDWARA POLICE DIST 6H AWANTIPORA POLICE DIST 17H
2G SHUT FOR HANDWARA POLICE DIST 17H

MOBILE SERVICES SHUT IN ENTIRE KASHMIR VA

Two militants killed in Militant strike leaves 3 CRPF

Pulwama gunfight 114 personnel dead in Kupwara district 119

Colonel, Major, 2 soldiers and J&K Gunfight on in Awantipora Village,

Police officer killed in Handwara 115 Top Hizb Commander Trapped 120

Govt forces kill two Hizb chief Riyaz Naikoo killed in

militants in Handwara 116 southern Kashmir encounter 121

114 https://thekashmirwalla.com/2020/05/two-militants-killed-in-pulwama-gunfight-2/
115 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/05/03/colonel-major-sog-si-among-5-security-men-killed-in-handwara/
116 https://thekashmirwalla.com/2020/05/handwara-gunfight-local-among-two-slain-militants-say-officials/
117 https://internetfreedom.in/sc-reserves-judgement-in-petitions-for-4g-restoration-in-j-k/
118 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PXpflHeGKkjLjuQ53-R6_G5IAdW5F169/view
119 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/05/04/3-crpf-personnel-killed-in-militant-attack/
120 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/05/06/gunfight-breaks-out-in-awantipora-village-top-hizb-commander-trapped/
121 https://thekashmirwalla.com/2020/05/hizb-chief-riyaz-naikoo-killed-in-south-kashmir-encounter/
 08/05

09/05

10/05

11/05

12/05

13/05

14/05

15/05
Foundation for Media Suspension following
Professionals vs Union of “killing of a suspected
India: Supreme Court order: person who tried to flee”
refuses to order restoration
of 4G services in the context Suspension due to
of COVID; directs constitution encounter and “likelihood
of a high-powered Special of misuse of data services
Committee which will look into by Anti national elements/
the contentions 122 OGW for communication”

RESTRICTION EXTENDED
KULGAM 9H
2G SERVICES KASHMIR VALLEY (EXCEPT PULWAMA AND SHOPIAN DISTRICTS)
PULWAMA & SHOPIAN DIST BUDGAM DIST 14H

2G MOBILE DATA,PULWAMA & SHOPIAN DIST

MOBILE SERVICES RESTORED AROUND 2200H
ALLEY FROM 1410H

Civilian killed for jumping checkpoint 123,

says Police. Eyewitnesses say Mehrajuddin
was shot point blank in his back 124

Kulgam gunfight: No fresh firing reported 125

122 https://internetfreedom.in/supreme-courts-j-k-4g-restoration-decision-disappointing-but-we-are-determined/
123 https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/kashmiri-youth-jumps-checkpost-shot-dead-by-crpf/cid/1772766
124 https://theprint.in/india/jk-cop-says-crpf-shot-nephew-point-blank-in-budgam-police-lying-too/421003/
125 https://thekashmirwalla.com/2020/05/kulgam-gunfight-no-fresh-firing-reported/
16/05

17/05

18/05

19/05

20/05

21/05

22/05

23/05
Foundation for Media Professionals vs Union
of India: FMP approaches Special Committee
established by Court, says blanket orders
cannot be issued which indiscriminately slow
down internet services in all districts of J&K
without providing district-specific reasons 126

Suspension due to encounter and “likelihood

of misuse of data services by Anti national
elements/OGW for communication”

PULWAMA DIST 24H

SRINAGAR DIST 88H

MOBILE CELLULAR SERVICE SHUT EXCEPT BSNL 18H

Encounter at Srinagar: 12 Year old injured in

Two killed, 22 Srinagar encounter
houses damaged succumbs to burn injuries 129
in Kanemazaar,
Nawakadal 127

Journalist Fahad Shah

summoned by Cyber police for
reporting from encounter site 128

126 https://internetfreedom.in/fmp-approaches-special-committee-established-by-sc-for-restoration-of-4g-internet-in-j-k/
127 https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/pictures-kashmir-homes-reduced-rubble-gun-battle-200520081337812.html
128 http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=102413
129 https://kashmirlife.net/nawakadal-injured-boy-succumbs-233968/
24/05

25/05

26/05

27/05

28/05

29/05

30/05

31/05
Suspension due to encounterand Foundation for Media Professionals vs Union of India:
“likelihood of misuse of data services FMP asks Special Committee established by Supreme
by Anti national elements/OGW for Court to immediately review 4G internet restrictions:
communication” despite Courts directions the Committee has failed to
take any action in almost three weeks 132

RESTRICTION EXTENDED

KULGAM & SHOPIAN DIST 15.5H

Two more civilians injured in

Srinagar fire succumb to injuries 130

2 Militants Killed In Kulgam Encounter 131

Image © www.instagram.com/countingdaysk
DAY 299

130 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/05/24/nawa-kadal-encounter-2-more-injured-civilians-die-toll-mounts-to-3/
131 https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/05/25/2-militants-killed-in-kulgam-gunfight-police/
132 https://internetfreedom.in/fmp-demands-compliance-with-sc-judgement-by-special-committee-for-restoration-of-4g-in-j-k/
Published By
Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS)
The Bund, Amira Kadal, Srinagar 190001
Jammu and Kashmir
www.jkccs.net
Copy Left License
This report may be used, reproduced,
or translated freely for non-commercial purposes,
with due acknowledgement and attributions.
First Published
August 2020
Research & Editing
Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh
Vasundhra Kaul
Misbah Reshi
Mehroosh Shah
Additional Inputs

E FR
Asmita Bakshi (AB)

T IC
JUS
Suvir Kaul

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Amba Uttara Kak

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Mohammad Khurram Qureshi

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Itu Chaudhuri Design
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