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Posted on 21 September 2012
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Telecom blackout fails to stop protests and a near-bandh in Valley
State government kept schools shut on Friday, suspended mobile phone and internet services
Riyaz Wani
Srinagar
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Photos: Faisal Khan
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For the third time in a week, protests erupted in Kashmir on Friday 21 September, against the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims. Though there was no call for a shutdown from any organisation, people voluntarily closed their businesses apprehending large-scale protests on Friday.
The state government also took precautionary measures by announcing a school holiday. However, it was the government’s shutdown of mobile phone services and internet service in the Valley that surprised many. Even Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) didn’t function.
The Home Department issued an order on Thursday under Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 to temporarily suspend the services. The order read: “In the interest of public safety and for maintaining public order, the Government directs that all licensed Telecom Service Providers, Internet Service Providers shall make arrangements to ensure that their subscribers, customers, clients in the State of Jammu and Kashmir should not be able to download or upload the contents with regard to film, message, comments, excerpts of the blasphemous video titled Innocence of Muslims or by any other name”.
A heavy contingent of police and CRPF was deployed to prevent any large assemblies. However, the day played out as predicted. Early on Friday morning, the women’s separatist outfit Dukhtaran-i-Millat took out a protest march in downtown Srinagar. A large procession of burqa-clad women, some even brought their children along, filled the main street. They were shouting slogans against the United States of America, police resorted to lobbing tear-gas shells when the women refused to disperse.
As the day progressed, tension grew in the city and major towns of the Valley. Hundreds of youth hit the streets after Friday prayers and started pelting stones. In downtown Srinagar, groups of protesters occupied the roads, burning tyres and shouting slogans. Similarly, there were protests and incidents of stone-throwing reported from Baramulla, Anantnag, Kupwara, Budgam, Pattan and Bandipora.
The hardline separatist alliance led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has denied that they had called for a shutdown. “We only asked people to recite Durood (verses from Quran) for two minutes at 11am. We do not approve of violent protests, stone throwing or burning of property. Doing this is against Islamic principles,” said spokesman Ayaz Akber.
A similar shutdown had been clamped in Pakistan on Friday in protest against the film.
Riyaz Wani is a Special Correspondent with Tehelka.
riyaz@tehelka.com
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