A day after unknown gunmen attacked a telecom centre in North Kashmir’s Sopore town of Baramulla district, retailers associated with telecom business removed their sign boards from their facades on Tuesday.Eyewitnesses told CNS that telecom service providers in Sopore town especially in Rahim Sahab area removed the advertisement boards from their shops. “I don’t want to take any chances. Unknown gunmen have threatened the people associated with telecom business to stop recharging mobiles and windup the business. I am doing the same and that is why I removed the sign boards of these cellular companies,” a shopkeeper told CNS. “Please don’t mention my name but it is true that pre-paid subscribers have been facing tremendous problem in the town as they don’t get recharge from anywhere. About 95 percent people in the town are pre-paid subscribers. I have some recharge coupons but I will not recharge anyone’s cell phone. There is threat and we all know how a BSNS employee was killed. His killing shocked us all and we have been feeling uneasy,” another telecom operator said.
Meanwhile the Vodafone tower located at Chinkipora Sopore has become defunct after the landlord asked the company to stop using the tower. “I have a family and I love my children. I don’t want anyone attack my family for allowing Cellular Company to run its tower from my piece of land. I have already asked the Vodafone Company to stop using the tower and they obliged,” said a landlord who wished not to be named.Cellular outlets have been shut in the town from past three weeks. The trouble according to Police sources started when a high tech communication device installed by militants to avoid their detection by Security Agencies on the top of a mobile tower went missing. Soon after the device went missing, a group of militants raided the three cellular outlets on May 1 this month accusing employees of stealing the device. The militants according to police threatened the cellular employees of dire consequences and soon after the raid, mysterious posters in the town appeared directing telecom operators to wind up their business.
The posters that carried the name of unknown militant group ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ hold telecom companies responsible for the killing and arrest of militant commanders in the town and threatened them of dire consequences in case they did not close their business with in a week’s time.The unknown persons on Saturday lobbed a grenade near Airtel tower causing panic in the area while on Monday these gunmen barged into the Iqra Telecom Centre and killed an employee while injuring two others including the BSNL Franchise owner Ghulam Muhammad alias Wakeel. Not a single official from any cellular company is ready to speak on issue despite the fact that these companies have incurring huge losses due to closure of their business in the town. (CNS)