Officials order tower service restored
Indian officials aren’t backing down after the recent terror attacks on their mobile infrastructure.
High-level Indian officials have ordered the Indian Army and CRPF, along with state police, to restore mobile service in the Kashmir Valley in spite of multiple attacks and threats to various telecommunication companies.
“Police are restoring mobile network services in north Kashmir which was shut down after the killing of two persons and repeated threat posters pasted by Lashar-i-islam,” the Deputy Inspector General of Police of North Kashmir said.
The militant Islamic group took credit for an attack on an Indian mobile service provider’s showroom that killed one and injured two and a shooting that killed a tower owner.
The police are tasked with protecting towers in vulnerable areas after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed directed them to make sure service was restored.
Mobile operators and local citizens shut down 1,058 of their mobile towers in the area out of fear for their safety. In the worst affected Sopore area, 609 towers have been restored.
Indian officials condemned the attacks with some strong words. One official called the militants “enemies of people and their struggles.”
Police say they have arrested three suspects who they believe had been putting up threatening posters in the area.
Intelligence sources in India believe the cause of the recent terrorist backlash against the tower industry is due to the seizure of an ISI-supplied radio communication gadget installed at a telecom tower in Sopore earlier this year.
