Covid-19: Kashmir Internet blackouts hinder health services, contact tracing

Smoke rises from a house at a site of a gun battle between suspected militants and government forces in downtown Srinagar, Kashmir on May 19, 2020. Communications blackouts imposed by India’s government as part of an effort to quell political turmoil and armed conflict in Kashmir are hampering the fight against the novel coronavirus, warn health experts and residents. — AFP

SRINAGAR, India: For three days without Internet or phone service this month, Rouf Ahmad found himself cut off from his family in Indian-administered Kashmir while his mother was receiving treatment for the deadly coronavirus.

The 23-year-old sociology student is under quarantine in a hospital in Srinagar, Kashmir's main city, and could not contact the rest of his family to tell them about his mother's condition as she was treated in the same hospital.