'SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir—When Indian-administered Kashmir confirmed its first coronavirus case on March 18, Iqbal Saleem, a professor of surgery at Government Medical College in the capital, Srinagar, sensed the days ahead would be challenging. He sent a WhatsApp message to his friend, a surgeon in the United Kingdom, asking about the country’s response to the pandemic. His friend sent back a detailed protocol adopted by hospitals in Kent. For Saleem, just downloading the document was a herculean task.
'As the first COVID-19 case was officially confirmed from Srinagar on Wednesday and the Valley was subsequently locked down again, the doctors, healthcare workers, researchers and students in Kashmir are taking to social media to raise concerns about restricted information due to slow speed internet. They’re demanding restoration of full-speed 4G internet so that people can be better informed and get critical information about the coronavirus pandemic. “This is so frustrating. Trying to download the guidelines for intensive care management as proposed by doctors in England.
'Amid looming coronavirus threat, people in Kashmir are frantically searching on Google to find out information on Covid-19, but the low-speed internet comes in way. After the closure of the schools and colleges in the wake of coronavirus scare, the students find it hard to study online, courtesy low speed internet... A senior doctor from SMHS on the basis of anonymity said that “Kashmiris are furiously Googling to seek information about coronavirus, but unfortunately the law speed mars them.”...
'Indian authorities lifted a ban on social media and restored full internet access in Kashmir on Wednesday evening, seven months after the disputed region was locked down and stripped of its partial autonomy. The order, which still places certain restrictions on mobile internet services, is only valid till March 17, unless extended... Access to broadband internet in the restive region comes with a condition; MAC-binding. This forces a particular device to access internet from a specific IP address.
'The number of preventive internet shutdowns enforced by the central and the state governments in India saw a major spike between 2017 and 2019, and as many as 95 of these lasted for more than 24 hours. There were at least 147 instances over these three years for which there is no data on the duration of the shutdowns as there is lack of any form of communication on these blockades, according to data available in public domain and compiled by Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC)...
'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.
'The Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday lodged a First Information Report against locals for using social media platforms on virtual private networks (VPNs)... The police said there were continuous reports of misuse of social media sites by miscreants “to propagate the secessionist ideology and to promote unlawful activities”.
'Internet services were once again suspended in Kashmir Sunday amid a shutdown to commemorate the death anniversary of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Guru was hanged in Delhi on 9 February 2013. All shops and business establishments in the Valley remained shut on account of a strike call purportedly issued by the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) of Yasin Malik and the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani...'
