The Jammu and Kashmir police on Wednesday claimed to have restored 963 mobile towers out of 1,220 in the valley that were affected by the militant attacks last week. According to reports, across 13 districts of Kashmir 2,734 towers out of total 2991 towers have been restored.
Rajan S. Mathews, head of the Cellular Operators Association of India told a news agency, “We expect the problem to be resolved in the next few days, and normalcy to return to telecom services in the area by the end of the week.”
Referring to the need to provide security to the services, K. Rajendra, director general of the Jammu & Kashmir police reportedly said, “Wherever the need arises for providing security to towers, we will provide it.” He further added, “We will deploy our men in all vulnerable areas and if need arises, we can even shift some towers and install them near security installations.”
Last week, two people were killed and four others hurt in attacks by group Lashkar-e-Islam on owners hosting cellphone towers and operating recharge outlets, which panicked others into shutting up shop. As many as 2,500 telecom towers were affected but the authorities are trying their best to bring them back.