Cell phones in Srinagar go silent during PM’s visit

SRINAGAR - All mobile phones in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar went dead as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived on a two-day visit to the valley.

“The subscriber is presently switched off,” said a computerised message as cell phone users tried to contact friends and relatives.

Senior officials of the state government denied that the cell phones had been jammed for security reasons and service providers also maintained silence.

When contacted a senior official of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited said: “Cell phones have not been jammed. I have no knowledge about this.”

Locals have criticised the service providers and the authorities for resorting to such a measure.

“It is like throwing an iron curtain around the city. I could not contact any cell phone even when I tried to do so from my landline. This is something unimaginable,” said Muzaffar Ahmad, 49, a collage teacher here.

The worst-affected were the local journalists who were greatly inconvenienced because the mobile phones went dead in the city.

“My office back in Delhi has been calling me to know the latest on the prime minister’s visit and here I am sitting in my office clueless about the visit,” said a local journalist who works for a New Delhi-based newspaper.

There have been instances when the separatist guerrillas have triggered explosions by using mobile phones in the past here.