VPN ban imposed in South and North Kashmir amid tightened surveillance
Move termed fresh assault on digital freedom, free expression
Srinagar: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, amid escalating oppression aimed at tightening control over information flow, the occupation authorities have imposed a blanket ban on the use of Virtual Private Network (VPN) services in South and north Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, as the occupation forces have increased cell phone surveillance, Kupwara, Kulgam and Shopian districts of the Kashmir Valley are the latest districts to face imposition of a VPN ban, with orders for legal action against violators.
In one such order, Shrikant Balasaheb Suse, Magistrate Kupwara, invoked Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) to prohibit all VPN services across the district for a period of two months, citing vague “security concerns” and alleged suspicious online activity.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Kupwara claimed an increase in VPN usage by “unidentified and suspicious internet users.”
Several other districts across occupied Jammu and Kashmir have already imposed the ban, and more than 10 people have been booked for using VPN applications over the last month. Last week, two people were booked in Doda district on the charge of installing VPN on their mobile phones.
Under the directive, all individuals, institutions, cyber cafés and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been barred from using or providing VPN services, except those with specific government authorisation. The order has been enforced with immediate effect and carries the threat of strict legal action against violators. The administration admitted that the order was issued ex-parte without prior notice to the public, acknowledging that it was “not feasible” to serve individual notices—an approach rights observers say reflects the arbitrary nature of governance in the occupied territory.
Civil society members and digital rights activists have strongly criticised the move, calling it another attempt to suffocate free speech, online privacy and access to information in the occupied territory. They held that VPNs are widely used by journalists, students, professionals and ordinary citizens to protect data, access educational resources and communicate securely in a region already plagued by frequent internet shutdowns and surveillance.
