Kashmir lifts pre-paid phone ban

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/8472049.stm

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The Indian government has lifted a ban on pre-paid mobile phone services in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

The ban was imposed nearly three months ago to "prevent the misuse of pre-paid mobile services by militant groups".

Officials said militants would buy mobile phone SIM cards providing fake identity documents. These phones would later be used for militant operations.

Authorities said the ban was lifted because they now had a reliable system to verify all customers.

The ban was imposed on 1 November by India's home ministry.

Unpopular ban

Kashmir Valley had about 3.8 million pre-paid subscribers. In recent weeks many had shifted to different services.

On Thursday the government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) telecommunications company told the BBC that the ban had been revoked.

"We have told the service providers that they can re-start the pre-paid mobile services in the state," a spokesman said.

The ban was very unpopular with people across Indian-administered Kashmir and all political parties in the state criticised the move as "discriminatory".

"The ban had unnecessarily caused confusion and inconvenience to people in Kashmir," Irfan Ansari, one telecoms entrepreneur in Srinagar told the BBC.

The president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry Nazir Ahmed Dar welcomed the government's decision.

"I am happy they understood that the ban was a wrong decision and that a system of verification similar to post-paid mobiles should be put in place [for pre-paid connections]," he said.