Mobile internet services for prepaid connections were restored in Jammu and Kashmir late on Friday, six months after they were suspended. Authorities had suspended all internet services to quell the protests that followed the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in July 8, 2016.

A majority of the restrictions across the Valley, including curfew, was lifted on November 19, 2016. Mobile internet services on postpaid numbers were also restored then. For a while, the only mobile service functional in some parts of Kashmir was Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and the only internet connectivity was the BSNL broadband service.

Moreover, this Republic Day, it was only for the second time in recent years that mobile phones and internet services were not barred in the state, which has been plagued by unrest and clashes between security personnel and citizens since Wani’s killing. For more than a decade since 2005, the restrictions were imposed on both Republic Day and Independence Day as explosions were triggered using cellphones.