Ishfaq-ul-Hassan. Srinagar
The ban on prepaid mobile SIM is turning out to be a big headache for Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah since it has given the opposition PDP a weapon with which to slam the government.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday led a march through the heart of Srinagar to protest the "discriminatory and arbitrary ban". Mehbooba, her party MLAs and hundreds of supporters started the march from the party office at Emporium Garden and crisscrossed through the streets of Lal Chowk.

Carrying placards and raising slogans, the leader came down heavily on the National Conference-Congress coalition for "facilitating the ban" in Jammu and Kashmir which has affected nearly 38 lakh subscribers and put 20,000 people out of work.
"The ban means that 38 lakh connections are of no use now. With this the government had dealt a blow to tourism and trade in the state. It shows that the government is trying to brand the entire population of the state as terrorists," she said.
She said ruling National Conference could not absolve itself from the responsibility of anti-people measures. "It is ironical that NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah, being a minister at the Centre and a party to all the government decisions, was also regreatting the withdrawal of the facility."

Mehbooba also pooh-poohed the government's claim of normalcy, saying decisions such as the prepaid ban are exposing the myth created by the ruling coalition. "On one hand, the government was claiming complete normalcy. On the other hand, they are taking decisions which project Kashmir as a disturbed area throughout the world," she said.

She called upon the Centre to give up its discriminatory attitude towards Kashmir. "PDP will launch a movement against the retrograde steps like banning of mobiles which added to the feeling of siege among people," she said.

The ban has also brought the ruling NC on the backfoot. "We will raise this issue of prepaid ban in the forthcoming parliament session. Imposition of ban on SIM cards has created a sense of insecurity among the people of Kashmir," said Dr Mehboob Beg, National Conference MP from Anantnag.

Panthers Party, which has three MLAs in the 87-member house, has approached the Supreme Court against the decision.