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Prepaid phone ban stirs anger in Indian Kashmir

Categories: General
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 12:04 AM

India mobile

We already talked about India’s ban on prepaid mobile phones in Kashmir, which authorities put in force in belief rebels use fake documents to obtain the phone cards to evade detection and detonate bombs. Well, the move is far from popular and has led to angry protests, putting as many as 20,000 jobs at risk and jeopardizing peace efforts in the disputed territory between the Indian government and Muslim separatists.

Last week, hundreds of activists from the pro-India People’s Democratic Party demonstrated against the decision, accusing the government for discrimination. The party’s president, Mehbooba Mufti, said: “Our party will launch a movement against the retrograde steps like the banning of mobile phones, which have added to the feeling of siege among the people.”

There are 3 million prepaid card subscriptions in the region, according to the Home Ministry. Each such prepaid card costs about 100 Indian rupees, which is about $2. Not surprisingly, these cards are popular among the youth and those who can not afford ongoing postpaid plans.

The government has said it will review the ban once security concerns are addressed…

[Via: CellularNews]

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About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.

  • Crystal Dawson

    banning a mobile phone is not a good idea to prevent those phone bombing tactics, we can prevent those tragedy if we are careful and protect full while doing any things and also being an aware person can help us to survive on those harmful happenings. Mobile phone and prepaid card are really important to all of us, especially prepaid phone card the one who can help us too communicate any time we want, just make sure you still have a sufficient balance, that’s why i’am very happy to know that there are also a very affordable prepaid phone card in india its prices are really good to those people who dont want to spent more,