Now, Omar says no ban on prepaid SIMs

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has spoken out against the central government’s decision to ban pre-paid SIM cards in the valley. Omar said today (November 9) that there should be no blanket ban on pre-paid SIM cards in the interests of the people and that he would ask the Home Ministry to review the ban but enhance security measures to prevent their misuse. He said the ban punished genuine users when the actual people at fault were the mobile service providers. Union minister Farooq Abdullah had also earlier asked the Home Minister to review the ban. The announcement comes a day after the Opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) raised protests against the Centre’s decision to ban pre-paid mobile phone cards. The Union Home Ministry had banned the use of pre-paid SIM cards in the valley citing that terrorists were using these SIMs under fake identities. The Home Ministry, while enforcing the ban, had said that the move "comes in the wake of reports that proper verification is not being done while providing such prepaid mobile connections by the service providers and vendors. In some cases, a single person had been issued with multiple numbers of connections". The J&K police early this year had found that an IED was triggered in North Kashmir using a mobile phone that had a SIM card issued in the name a senior Army officer in North Kashmir's Baramulla district. "Fake documents and identity cards are being used by the vendors, particularly in the case of prepaid connections. This situation has given rise to serious security concerns. Hence, the decision," the ministry had said.