No internet: Kashmiris bank on good old letters

SRINAGAR:FOR the first time, Soleh Latif, in his late twenties, wrote a personal letter on a piece of paper in second week of September and posted it from the general post office (GPO) Srinagar to a friend in Chandigarh.

Latif, a calligraphy artist from restive old city, wanted to send a message to his client and friend in Chandigarh with whom he was in touch till the evening of August 4 when communication services were blocked across Jammu and Kashmir.

“On August 4, I was texting her when internet and mobile services were blocked. Since that day, there has been no contact. I wrote a letter telling her that I was alive and doing fine,” Latif said, while waiting in a queue at GPO Srinagar.

With no internet, emails and closure of private courier services since August 5 lockdown, post offices are back in demand in Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar, as people are relying on the Indian postal services for sending letters, documents and parcels.

From early morning, people from different parts of the Valley could be seen waiting outside the main GPO enquiring about the opening time from the security forces personnel. The rush is also due to the closure of post office branches in many sensitive areas of the Valley.peoples can be seen carrying parcels and gift items for their friends and relatives living in other parts of the country and the world.

“I could not dispatch important papers to Delhi as courier services are not working. An important document got delayed. Thanks to the postal services. Though it took time but the document reached its destination,” said Waseem Amin, a job aspirant.

Latif used to send his artistic creations like calligraphic frames and rolls through private courier services to Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and even Canada.

“There is no contact now. We can’t track our parcels sent through the courier service in absence of internet. Earlier, I would go to the post office for receiving parcels. Today, I am sending a letter from a post office for the first time,” he said.

Though the government has now opened some 44,000 landline connections but they are in no way sufficing the needs of some 60 lakh mobile phone subscribers in Kashmir. Officials of the GPO Srinagar were not ready to give any information about the functioning of the post office since the lockdown.“i can’t share any data with you as I am a central government employee. You can see how people are using the services,” said Chander M Bhat, a senior postmaster at GPO Srinagar.