The Indian government announced the ban on pre-paid connections last weekend, citing concerns that militants were using them to trigger bombs in Kashmir, the scene of a deadly 20-year-old insurgency against New Delhi’s rule.<\/p>\n
Carrying placards reading: “Stop suspecting Kashmiris,” protesters from the pro-India People’s Democratic Party (PDP) marched through the streets of the state’s summer capital Srinagar.<\/p>\n
They were led by party chief Mehbooba Mufti who called the ban a “manifestation of India’s discriminatory policies in Kashmir.”<\/p>\n
She demanded to know why the government had banned pre-paid connections in Kashmir when it had not taken similar steps in areas of the country where Maoist insurgents are operating or in the insurgency-racked northeast.<\/p>\n
The ban has affected 3.8 million users in Kashmir. Post-paid mobiles, billed on a monthly basis, can still be bought. But buying them requires a series of security checks and official registration of personal details and passport photographs.<\/p>\n
Pre-paid phones, popular because of their easy availability and payment flexibility, come with a set number of minutes charged on them, have no bills and had been sold without detailed identity checks.<\/p>\n
The last militant bomb attack in Kashmir was in September in Srinagar when four people died. Police said at the time they suspected a mobile phone might have been used to detonate the blast.<\/p>\n
However, opponents of the ban say that militants can easily get pre-paid mobile connections outside Kashmir. The government has said it will review the ban once security concerns are addressed.<\/p>\n
“I think that service providers will meet the government and present a plan by which we can reconcile security interest and the interests of consumers,” Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said earlier in the week.<\/p>\n
An estimated 47,000 lives have been lost in the Kashmir conflict, according to official figures, though violence has declined in recent years after the start of a peace process between India and Pakistan in 2004.<\/p>\n
Mobile services were launched in Kashmir only in 2003 after security agencies gave the go-ahead following appeals by the then ruling PDP party.<\/p>\n