India may ban prepaid mobiles in J&K

SRINAGAR, INDIA: Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said on Wednesday that prepaid mobile telephones may be banned in Jammu and Kashmir owing to security risks.

In reply to a question by a journalist who is here in connection with the All India Editors' Conference organized by Press Information Bureau, the Home Minister said that there are growing concerns about prepaid mobile phones, as it was impossible to trace if it is used to trigger bombs, according to media reports.

The move comes after several incidents were reported by security forces in which militants had used prepaid mobiles purchased under fictitious names for communicating with one another, said a PTI report.

Chidambaram said the government has been making efforts to persuade prepaid subscribers to switch to postpaid connections due to security issues.

"We may have to ban the prepaid mobile services in Kashmir valley for a while if our efforts (at persuasion) do not succeed," the report quoted Chidambaram as saying.

It was only in 2003 that mobile phones were launched in Kashmir, after getting a clearance from security agencies. However, recently there were reports that prepaid SIM cards have been employed in explosive attacks.

According to the PTI report Airtel has nearly 19 lakh subscribers followed by BSNL having 12 lakh and Aircel having seven lakh.