Two major cellular companies operating in the held Kashmir Valley have barred over 200,000 prepaid Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards. Telecom company AirTel sources said that they also had to bar over 50,000 SIM cards after the documentation relating to them was found inadequate. Also, sources in the Aircell company told media men that 150,000 SIM cards were barred claiming that they were found to have improper documentation, Kashmir Media Service reported on Sunday.
Meanwhile, many customers have expressed anguish over the move. "My wife's cell phone has suddenly stopped," said Yasir Ahmad adding that the company should have at-least informed the customers before going ahead with the move.
The move comes days after Indian home ministry had called a meeting of CEOs of cellular companies to discuss real time monitoring of communication over the cell phones and the Internet. The move has resulted in inconvenience to the mobile phone users in the region where Short Messaging Service on prepaid phones is already banned by the authorities. It was banned owing to the uprising and protests against Indian state-terrorism in which over 122 youth including women were killed by paramilitary troops and policemen.