Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 19: The telecom showrooms of various cellular operators and re-charge facilities in the North Kashmir township of Sopore have been shutdown following fresh militant threats.
A meeting of various cellular operators was held today in which shut down of all telecom showrooms, recharge facilities and activation of fresh connections has been decided for Sopore area following fresh threats by the unknown militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI).
Area Manager of a cellular company told Excelsior that they are facing continued threats and are asked to shut down the services. He said their employee and franchisees are not ready to work under such an environment when there is threat to life.
“The employees working with the franchisees have fled their homes after fresh threats last week. Even the landlords of showroom are asking us to look for alternate spaces for the showrooms. Under these circumstances we have decided to shut down our operations in Sopore area”, the Manager of a Cellular company said.
The Manager, however, said that the tower landlords are also asking for the shifting of the towers from their premises but so far no decision has been taken on this. He said that towers are functioning normally so far.
Last week two hand grenades were lobbed towards a tower in Nihalpora village of Pattan area of North Kashmir. However, the grenades did not explode. Later, bomb disposal squad was rushed to the area and the grenades were diffused without causing any damage to life and property. Soon after the incident, the Army and police carried out massive search operation in the area to track down the attackers. However, no one was arrested.
It may be mentioned here that in May there was telecom shutdown for over a week in North Kashmir after majority of the towers were shutdown following militant threats and attacks. Even in Srinagar and South Kashmir the telecom operations remained affected in the first week of June for two days.
Two people associated with telecoms were killed and 4 injured in six separate attacks on the telecoms in May that led to major telecom shutdown.
However, police later provided security to the towers and assured the telecom operators security for their operations. A major crackdown was also launched against the LeI which police says is breakaway group of Hizbul Mujahideen but so far security forces have not achieved any major success against them.
The fresh threats is a new challenge for the Government who last month restored the telecom operations but failed to provide security to telecom operators who have become soft target for LeI.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel