{"id":191709,"date":"2026-01-03T10:46:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T05:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=191709"},"modified":"2026-01-03T10:46:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T05:46:01","slug":"150-kashmiris-booked-for-vpn-use-as-authorities-escalate-digital-repression-in-iiojk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2026\/01\/03\/150-kashmiris-booked-for-vpn-use-as-authorities-escalate-digital-repression-in-iiojk.html","title":{"rendered":"150 Kashmiris booked for VPN use as authorities escalate digital repression in IIOJK"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Srinagar: Authorities in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have escalated their digital crackdown by booking around 150 people across the territory for using Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications on their mobile phones to access internet.<\/p>\n

According to Kashmir Media Service, acting on orders from the New Delhi-appointed Lieutenant Governor, Indian police carried out device verifications across various districts of IIOJK and initiated legal or preventive actions against the individuals. As of now, around 150 people have been booked under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), previously known as the Criminal Procedure Code.<\/p>\n

The majority of the individuals were booked in Pulwama district, with 95 cases, followed by 23 in Sopore area of Baramulla, 15 in Shopian, nine in Kulgam, five in Islamabad, two in Doda, while one man was arrested in Rajouri for possessing a VPN application.<\/p>\n

The occupation authorities have imposed ban on the use of VPNs across all ten districts of the Kashmir Valley, as well as several districts in the Jammu region, citing so-called security concerns. However, digital experts argue that the actual aim behind this ban is to further limit the flow of information and significantly restrict online access for the people in IIOJK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Srinagar: Authorities in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have escalated their digital crackdown by booking around 150 people across the territory for using Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications on their mobile phones to access internet. According to Kashmir Media Service, acting on orders from the New Delhi-appointed Lieutenant Governor, Indian police carried out …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":191710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-191709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arrest","tag-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/01\/VPN-Arrest.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191711,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191709\/revisions\/191711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}