It took 167 days for the UT administration in Jammu and Kashmir to restore 2G internet services in a phased manner on January 18, 2020. More than a month later, Kashmir has official access to around 1500 whitelisted websites. The weekly reviews add on innocuous websites but it excludes a million others including the major social networking platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and others. This has led people to make the Virtual Private Network (VPN’s) a new trend.
This has led Kashmir to jump from a complete communication blockade to a life being lived behind the firewalls. It has added a new dimension to the scathing criticism of the government for restricting a service being seen as a fundamental right in most of the civilised world. The trend has unwittingly converted the entire situation in a technology war between the VPN developers, mostly from the West, and the law enforcing agencies. On a daily basis, the internet managers in Kashmir block the software’s and the developers check their capacities to penetrate the market.
SUFFERING PEOPLE
In this game of denial and diversion, people are suffering. Salman Majeed, currently pursuing his masters in engineering at Italy, saw his mother after more than167 days as 2G internet services were restored. “There was a lump in my throat as if million jabbing pins were on it,” Salman said after he virtually saw his parents after more than 5 months using WhatsApp. Unlike him, his mother couldn’t contain tears. “After the internet was snapped, his photos were my sole consolation.”
Suhail Ahmed is working in Qatar. At the peak of lockdown, he used to dial his father’s number 500 times a day. Unable to reach them, he flew home. After meeting his parents, his real crisis was that he could not book his tickets.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 23-29, 2020; Issue 47 Vol 11; ‘I pray to God to give me the stature of Bakshi Sahib’ من Kashmir Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 23-29, 2020; Issue 47 Vol 11; ‘I pray to God to give me the stature of Bakshi Sahib’ من Kashmir Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Before The Kabul Retreat
Described as the ‘Graveyard of Empires’, Afghanistan was always termed to be at peace when it was at war. But the land-locked desert country that was always in turmoil and one of the worst targets of the Great Game suffered immensely throughout, especially in the last 40 years, Masood Hussain writes
FINGERS CROSSED
Almost everybody in academia and politics that Khalid Bashir Gura spoke to, the response over Kabul happens was simple – wait and watch
Parliamentary Committee In Srinagar
The visiting 28-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs have had detailed interactions with top civil administration and discussed developmental scenario and people’s welfare measures in Jammu and Kashmir. It is on a 4-day visit. Congress leader and MP Anand Sharma is heading the committee.
MUSIC IN MUD HOUSE
Deep into north Kashmir, Faheem Mir meet a small community that sings and lives on folk music but is facing a tense situation in the last few years
THE KABUL SPILLOVER?
Security experts are divided over the possible impact of the Kabul situation on Kashmir. But the dramatic Taliban triumph has altered the region’s geopolitics, for the time being, writes Riyaz Wani
Durga Bhawan At Katra
To enhancing facilities for the convenience of the Vaishno Devi pilgrims, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha laid the foundation for the Durga Bhawan, a high utility pilgrim-centric facility worth Rs 24.4 crore. The facility will accommodate 4000 pilgrims.
Women Empowerment
In the first, 480 talented girls from Jammu and Kashmir were included in the degree and diploma courses of the Pragati Scholarship. Jammu and Kashmir has also got nine scholarships under the Saksham Scheme for Persons with Disabilities.
‘SOME HISTORIANS BELIEVE THAT AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT IS THE OUTCOME OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN KASHMIR STAND-OFF'
Foreign policy expert and editor of HardNews magazine, Sanjay Kapoor believes that Taliban 2.0 has more legitimacy unlike in the past as it had signed a deal with the US and negotiated with other countries of the region, but the final verdict can be passed only after it manages ticklish issues involving half of its population, the women
Boredom Is Creative?
Getting bored is not as boring as it gets, writes Azra Hussain
LG In Bangus
Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha inaugurated the Bungus Awaam Mela amidst grand arrangements for village games, exhilarating local performances, and other activities to celebrate the 75th year of Independence.
