Block on social media sites maintained: India ends internet blackout in held Kashmir after six months

Indian authorities on Saturday restored internet in occupied Kashmir after a five-and-a half-month blackout but maintained a block on social media sites.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government imposed a communications blackout in early August when it stripped the portion of Kashmir it occupies of its partial autonomy.

India also imposed a curfew, sent in tens of thousands of extra troops and detained dozens of Kashmiri political leaders and others, many of whom remain in detention, drawing criticism abroad.

Internet access was restored Saturday but only to 301 government-approved websites that include international news publications and platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.

Mobile phone data access was also restored, although it was limited to slower second-generation (2G) connections.

"It's good some internet access has been restored but it's so slow I'm hardly able to access anything and social media is also off-limits," Raashid Ahmad, a university student, told AFP. Azhar Hussain, a local businessman, also complained about the internet speed being "painfully slow". India is the world leader in cutting internet services, activists say, and access was also temporarily suspended in other parts of the country during recent protests against a new citizenship law.

Since August freedom of movement in heavily-militarized occupied Kashmir has been gradually restored as has cellphone coverage, but apart from at a handful of locations, there has been no regular internet access. This made life even harder for the region's seven million inhabitants and hit the local economy hard.

Modi's government said that the blackout was for security reasons. However, the Supreme Court criticised the government earlier this month for the move, calling it an "arbitrary exercise of power". The court also stated that having access to the internet "is integral to an individual's right to freedom of speech and expression".