SMS SERVICE BLOCKED
CAUTION Officials say services blocked as precautionary measure
SMS services were stopped as a “precautionary measure” a few hours after post-paid mobile phone connections were restored in Kashmir Valley, officials said on Tuesday.
Mobile phone services for post-paid subscribers resumed in Kashmir after 72 days on Monday noon, but without any internet facilities. By about 5 pm, SMS services were stopped too, officials said.
A few hours after postpaid mobile phone services were restored in the Valley, SMS services were stopped as a “precautionary measure”, officials said on Tuesday.
Mobile phone services for postpaid subscribers resumed in Kashmir after 72 days on Monday noon, but without any internet facilities. By about 5pm, SMS services were stopped too, officials said.
The SMS services were stopped on the directions of the ministry of home affairs. Initially, along with calls from postpaid mobile phones, people were able to send messages bringing relief after 72 days of communication blockade in Kashmir.
However, five or six hours later, the SMS services were stopped by all telecom operators.
An official of a telecom operator said they received a communication from the government that SMS services should be snapped on all post-paid mobile services, which were restored in ten districts of the Valley on Monday afternoon.
Some people are also attributing the suspension of SMS services to an attack on a truck driver in south Kashmir’s Shopian district
on Monday. Two terrorists, including a suspected Pakistani national, shot dead the driver of a Rajasthan truck and assaulted an orchard owner in Shopian dis
trict at around 8pm.
However, a senior official said the instructions were passed only for the restoration of voice calls and not SMS services. SRINAGAR: The body of 40-yearold truck driver, who was killed by suspected militants on Monday at Sadoo Shirmal village in Shopian district, was airlifted to his native place in Rajasthan on Tuesday.
The driver, Sharif Khan is a native of Uba in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.
A senior police official said the motto behind the killing will be revealed only after proper investigation. “The two militants had barged into the truck but there were more than two militants present on the spot. The gunmen had also set the truck on fire. Locals saved the fruit after security forces arrived on the spot,” he said.
A police spokesperson had said as per initial investigation militants of JeM and Hizbul Mujahideen are behind the killing. “Villagers tried to save the driver but were thrashed by militants,” he added.
Officials say militants want to send a message that growers should not harvest their yield and dispatch it outside the state. The latest attack could hamper fruit transportation from the region. “The incident has spread panic. Majority of people have not dispatched their apples,” a grower in south Kashmir said.