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Frequent Internet Bans Cause Losses to Students, Business in Shopian, Pulwama

December 22

Continuous shutdowns and snapping of internet in south Kashmir districts has paralysed life in the Pulwama and Shopian districts as thousands of students are suffering especially due to snapped internet.

The shutdown in Shopian and Pulwama has affected business as well as education, while internet is off since Saturday (15 December).

Students and aspirants of different competitive examinations who have applied for different government jobs are facing hardships, Locals told The Kashmiriyat.

Shahid Shafi Shah from Hermain Shopian, who is preparing his exams said the because of snapped internet he could not prepare well.

“Times have changed. We can’t cover all the syllabus through books. Use of internet is must for better results but the government here is playing with our career banning Internet every second week,” Shah told The Kashmiriyat.

Businesses have also been worstly affected by the internet ban. Abdul Majid, a resident of Pulwama, said that he planned to start an online business but frequent internet bans were becoming a hurdle.

Residents of the twin districts said their life has been paralysed both by constant internet bans, The internet ban shuts down services like PAN, Aadhar, Passport filing, and even ATMs.

Suhail Ahmad Khan, a resident of Pulwama said that government must think over the internet ban and come up with some alternative.

The Students of Islamic University of science and technology at Awantipora also urged the Government to restore the internet in the area as soon as possible as the students are suffering during the exam time.
When contacted a senior Police official, he said the internet was shut after ten killings in the Sirnoo area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Saturday and said that the Internet services in these twin districts will be restored after the law and order problem in the twin districts is over.

Internet bans which became a norm post the killing of Burhan Wani in July 2016, has seen 7,000 people working in the IT Sector loose their jobs.