Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) has witnessed at least 418 internet shutdowns for the last ten years, Internetshutdowns.in reported.
In the past ten years, the longest communication blockade was imposed in Kashmir where the Internet was shut down on the evening of 4th August 2019 for 552 days. On 5th August 2019 Article 370 of the Constitution was abrogated by the Modi-led fascist Indian government.
Kargil district of Ladakh faced a shutdown of 145 days, which was imposed in August 2019.
Internetshutdowns.in gathers its information through news and publicly available Internet shutdown orders issued by respective state governments. All reports are put through a rigorous cross-verification process by the team to verify their authenticity. It also files routine applications under the Right to Information Act, 2005, to obtain details about shutdowns.
In IIOJK, the highest number of shutdowns (175) was recorded in the Pulwama district of south Kashmir, as per the data. Islamabad, with 142 internet shutdowns since 2012, as per the data, falls second in the list.
Shopian, as per the database, has recorded 13 shutdowns since 2012. The number, however, is much higher. Kashmir’s summer capital, as per the data, has seen a total of 132 internet shutdowns.
Economically too, Kashmir was the worst hit region, which had no access to the Internet for more than 18 months. A report by the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries claims that from August 5, 2019, to July 2020, firms experienced losses totaling Rs 40,000 crore.
At least 5,000 salespeople in the tourism and mobile services sectors did not get paychecks in the months of August, September, and October until November 2020. In addition, 4.96 lakh people in Kashmir lost their jobs. The Chamber said that losses resulting from the disruption of online transactions and shopping after August 5 increased as a result of the Internet blackout.—KMS
