Telecom blackout amid flood panic cuts Kashmir off from world

Srinagar, Aug 27: For nearly 24 hours, Jammu and Kashmir was thrown into silence after a complete collapse of mobile and internet networks, creating panic amid a looming flood scare. The blackout, which began on Tuesday around 3:30 pm, ended briefly only by 2:30 pm on Wednesday, leaving over 1.25 crore people unable to make calls, access the internet, or even use landline fibre services.

After running for a few hours, the telecom services were again disrupted in the evening.

The disruption coincided with torrential rain and rising river levels in both the Kashmir and Jammu regions, which are already grappling with flood threats.

Residents said the collapse of communication crippled their ability to coordinate safety, check on relatives, or call emergency services, compounding the sense of fear.

Unlike previous disruptions, this blackout was total.

Mobile internet, voice calls, landline broadband, and even BSNL’s fixed-line connections were out of service.

Both private players like Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone-Idea, and the state-run BSNL went offline simultaneously.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah took to the microblogging site ‘X’ to highlight the gravity of the crisis.

“Still struggling with almost non-existent communication. There is a trickle of data flowing on Jio mobile, but no fixed line WiFi, no browsing, almost no apps, things like X open frustratingly slowly, and WhatsApp struggles with anything more than short text messages. Haven’t felt this disconnected since the terrible days of 2014 and 2019,” he posted.

“Earlier, even if mobiles didn’t work, we could at least rely on BSNL landlines or fibre,” said Abdul Rashid, a retired government employee in Srinagar. “This time, everything went blank. We were literally cut off.”

For many, the failure triggered memories of earlier shutdowns in Kashmir, especially the devastating 2014 floods and the 2019 post-Article 370 clampdown, when phones and internet were snapped for weeks.

The outage came at a particularly critical time when the Jhelum River and its tributaries are swelling under continuous rainfall, with officials declaring a flood alert in low-lying areas of Srinagar and parts of south Kashmir.

“This silence was dangerous,” said Showkat Jan, a shopkeeper in Lal Chowk. “With water levels rising, we didn’t know if warnings were being issued or if evacuation orders would come. Imagine waiting for danger in total darkness and silence.”

For families separated by distance, the anxiety was acute.

“My son works in Jammu. For a full day, I had no idea whether he was safe, whether roads were blocked, or whether he was able to reach home. This is not just an inconvenience; this is mental torture,” said Parveen Akhtar, mother of three in Baramulla.

The collapse had immediate ripple effects across sectors.

Banking came to a halt as ATMs, UPI, and online transactions went dead.

Many shops in Srinagar and Jammu had to close early, refusing customers without cash.

Several Srinagar-based newspapers struggled to bring out their editions on Wednesday as reporters were unable to file stories and photo desks could not receive field inputs.

Editors said page-making was delayed by hours because internet-based editing and transmission systems were down.

“We couldn’t get updates from our correspondents in the districts. Some reporters had to physically travel to the newsroom to hand over their news reports,” said an editor of a daily.

Officials later confirmed that damage to optical fibre cables at multiple points in flood-hit Jammu was the cause of the collapse.

Heavy rainfall and landslides snapped key links, bringing the entire communication backbone down.

“The phone and internet services, including mobile internet, fibre and landline internet, have now been restored after reconnection of optical fibre,” an official statement said.

Services, including 5G speeds, were reported back by Wednesday afternoon.

Acknowledging the gravity of the situation, the Union Ministry of Communications issued an emergency directive late Tuesday night, ordering all telecom operators – Airtel, Jio, BSNL, and Vodafone-Idea – to activate Intra-circle Roaming (ICR) in J&K until September 2.

This measure, officials explained, allows subscribers to automatically connect to any available network, not just their own, in case of a future breakdown.

“In view of prevailing situations due to heavy rainfall and multiple landslides in Jammu and Kashmir UT… all TSPs are hereby instructed to activate ICR facility with immediate effect till 11:59 pm of September 2, 2025 or till further instructions, whichever is earlier,” the ministry order read.

The psychological impact of the blackout was visible across the Valley.

“We felt blind and deaf,” said Javaid Ahmad, a taxi driver from Anantnag. “Even during curfews, we could make some calls. This time, nothing. We couldn’t even check if the river had breached embankments nearby.”

In flood-prone Bemina, residents said they spent the night “waiting in fear.”

“Every few minutes, we went out to check the water level, because we had no alerts. It was like living in the 1990s again, when there were no mobile phones,” said a local resident.

The economic impact was also severe.

Traders in Lal Chowk, Residency Road, and Baramulla reported heavy losses.

“With no digital payments, customers were turned away. Suppliers couldn’t confirm deliveries. It was chaos,” said Imtiyaz Ahmed, president of a traders’ body.