Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR: Authorities on Wednesday claimed to have restored over 1,000 of the deactivated Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) after receiving an advisory from the Centre.
Out of 2,903 towers of various telecom companies installed across Kashmir Valley, as many as 1,058 towers had been shut down due to attacks and threats by the guerrillas of ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ outfit. It had crippled around 3,000 BTSs of different telecommunication companies. Officials claimed that 609 towers, with around 1,000 BTSc of different companies, had been restored and charged on Wednesday.
Sources said that Police approached the tower landlords and convinced them on restoration of the services with the assurance that no militant cadres would be allowed to cause them any kind of harm.
In Baramulla district, excluding Sopore, 110 of the 185 affected towers have been restored while in Srinagar — the summer capital of the state — 91 of the 141 affected towers have been restored. Srinagar has a tower strength of 714.
Anantnag district in south Kashmir and Kupwara, barring Handwara police
district, in north were unaffected by the crisis. None of the 485 towers
in these two districts were affected by the militant activities in the district and have been functional. Out of 123 towers in Pulwama district, 101 towers were
affected by the militant threats while more than 50 per cent of the 140 towers were shut down in Awantipora police district, the sources said.
