'After struggling to connect and use VPN (virtual private network) apps over the last three days, Nasir was shocked to see his smartphone light up with unexpected 4G connectivity on Sunday night. He sprang out of bed with excitement and dialed a number of his friends to see whether it was really 4G or a dream. Some of his friends woke up to pick his calls and rushed to quickly check their smartphones. It has now been seven months since residents of the Jammu and Kashmir union territory have had proper Internet connectivity.
'Months after the government restored low-speed internet with access to “whitelisted” websites in Kashmir, local people in the region are again grappling with limited access after a moment of breather provided by Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) has ended. The administration Kashmir has enforced a crackdown on the use of VPNs with nearly all of them being blocked by telecom companies. Residents say that with the blocking of VPNs the access to even those “whitelisted” websites seem to have been curtailed as these websites do not open due to abysmally low bandwidth...'
'On February 25, the police in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district released a statement saying they had “saved a youth from joining militancy”. The 17-year-old had been taken into custody and booked under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The teenager’s offence: “misusing VPNs” to access social media websites still banned in Kashmir. Virtual Private Networks, or VPN, allow users to mask their location while browsing the internet.
