Mehran Bhat
Zainab was puzzled when a young boy knocked at her door to deliver a parcel which she had never ordered. On opening, the parcel turned out to be a surprise and she was out of words. Inside the parcel was a letter from the love of her life.
It had been almost one-month since the couple had last communicated. In 2019, Jammu Kashmir was under the longest communication cut off. All forms of communication was barred in the Valley after the central government ripped the erstwhile state of its semi-autonomous status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.
Inside the letter was a message from her fiancé Sahil, “I hope you are fine and in good health. I am missing you so madly. It feels like years of not talking to each other. I hope we meet again soon.”
For the couple, the period shall remain as an unforgettable memory throughout the course of their relationship.
“All I could do was, stare at his photos and remember all the good time we had spent in the past,” Zainab said, in a low tone looking up in the sky.
Almost everyday, Sahil would travel a long distance from his place, only to have a only one glance at his beloved Zainab. But he would fail time and again and return disappointed. “It was getting hard for me. My mental stability was degrading. The separation with my beloved started taking a serious toll on my mental health.”
Kashmir was without communication lines. It was impossible to even call for an ambulance in the middle of medical emergency. The region was pushed into primitive times, wherein only physical presence was the medium of information and communication.
Javed Ahmed travelled almost 90 km to inform his sister about the death of their father. He left in the afternoon. On the way, he struggled and had to consistently change the routes to reach his sister’s place in North Kashmir’s Sopore district.
“Wherever I would turn my car, all the roads would be crammed with security forces. They didn’t let me pass despite me making repeated requests that I had to inform my sister about our father’s death,” said Javed.
The Government claimed that communication was blocked to prevent rumors from spreading after Kashmir’s special status was revoked from the Indian constitution and the state was downgraded to two Union Territories.
“As the uncertainties grew, with each passing day, I worried about my son, Faizan, who studied outside the valley. There were different kinds of rumours doing rounds that Kashmiri students were being harrassed and beaten. I wanted to hear the voice of my beloved son once as I was feared for his safety. I would spend the whole day asking people about the news of communication lines being restored and every time I was disappointed,” said Shameema.
“I would visit the District Collector’s office in Srinagar on regular basis just to make a single call. But each time, I had to return empty handed due to the long queues of people waiting to talk to their loved ones. It was only after almost two months of regular visits when I heard the voice of my dear son on a landline phone after waiting under the sun for hours at the DC office,” she added.
After pause of more than one month, the landline telephone services were restored which brought a sigh of relief from the communication lockdown. But the restoration didn’t turn out to be as big a news because fixed lines were not widely used. People rushed towards the users of landline to make a call and ask whereabouts of near and dears ones.
Communication lines were partially restored on October 14, 2019 when the administration restored postpaid mobile services. Over the 2G internet, the Kashmiris could only access a few whitelisted sites.
Ban on high-speed was continuously extended citing “attempts by anti-national elements” to spread false news to disrupt the peace and harmony.
On August 16, 2020, the high speed mobile internet was restored on post-paid phones in Ganderbal in Kashmir region and Udhampur in Jammu region.
After a prolonged communication gag of 18 months on February 5, 2021, the administration restored internet in the entire UT giving access to all the sites.