None of the Kashmir Valley’s over 60 English, Urdu and Kashmiri newspapers could hit the stands on Monday following a verbal ban on the publications imposed by the state government amidst growing tensions in the upshot of Afzal Guru’s hanging.
However, some of the leading newspapers are available online. Yet their reach within the Valley is restricted due to snapping of Internet services. The official blackout has also hit mobile services in some parts of the Valley whereas all national and regional news channels on local cable have been suspended since Saturday. No Jammu or Delhi newspapers could be distributed here or elsewhere in the Valley due to curfew restrictions either. However, people are watching national news and other channels through dish. The Short Message Service (SMS) for prepaid mobile phones remains banned since 2010, when Kashmir witnessed massive protests in which more than 120 people were killed allegedly in security force and police firing.
Media persons who would move around using their accreditation cards issued by the J&K information department and treated as curfew passes were told by the security forces enforcing curfew restrictions in uptown Srinagar on Monday that they had orders not to allow any of them. It is learnt that the concerned authorities had earlier agreed to issue formal curfew passes to a select group of media persons, mostly representing national TV channels, but the information department refused to be part of the “discriminatory” guidelines.