Jammu: In an unprecedented security measure,
mobile services were jammed in the entire state today for
nearly 10 hours following intelligence inputs of the
possibility of cell phones being used by militants to engineer
blasts on Republic Day, police said here.
The mobile services were jammed as a security measure in
entire Jammu and Kashmir in view the intelligence reports
of apprehension of use of mobiles for engineering blast on
Republic Day in J&K, a senior police official said.
The services of seven service providers - BSNL, Airtel,
Vodafone, Tata Indicom, Aircel, Idea and Reliance - were
jammed from 0300 hours to 1300 hours in entire J&K today, he
said.
However, landline phones continued their functioning as
usual in Jammu and Kashmir.
Intelligence agencies had warned that bomb fitted mobiles
could be detonated through a phone call in a bid to disrupt
celebrations on R-day.
"The mobile services were restored after 1300 hours,
when all the R-day functions had concluded in capital cities
of Jammu and Srinagar besides the districts headquarters,
where the Governor N N Vohra unfurled the tri-colour", the
official said.
The Centre had on January 21 lifted a ban on new pre-paid
mobile connections in Jammu and Kashmir, issuing fresh
guidelines for the telecom operators to limit the number of
connections to a household.
The ban was imposed on November one last year due to
security reasons.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 18:43