India restores text messaging services in occupied Kashmir

• Internet connectivity to all government hospitals has also been restored.
• Pre-paid mobile services in Kashmir are yet to be restored.

The Indian government has restored text messaging services in occupied Kashmir after over four-and-a-half months of suspension.

The SMS services were restored on Tuesday midnight along with broadband internet services in government-run hospitals. Local government spokesman Rohit Kansal said the decision was made after a review of the situation."It has been decided to restore internet connectivity to all government hospitals with effect from midnight of December 31 besides fully restoring SMS on mobile phones," India Today quoted him.

However, internet and pre-paid mobile services in Kashmir are yet to be restored. The government restored post-paid services on October 14 after which some 4 million postpaid mobile phones became operational in occupied Kashmir.

A curfew has been in place in IoK since August 5 by Indian government, which also suspended landline and internet services in the region. On August 17, landline services in 17 out of a little over 100 telephone exchanges in IoK were made operational.

These exchanges were mainly in civil lines area, airport of Srinagar district and Cantonment area. While 2G mobile internet services were also restored in Jammu, Reasi, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur districts.