Broadband internet has been restored across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) as of midnight Sunday, ending a suspension that lasted 99 days — with the exception of a brief, roughly 40-hour restoration in between. The relief comes days after the AJK High Court directly ordered the government to restore services within 10 days.
What’s Back On — and What Isn’t
Broadband and DSL fixed-line internet have both been restored across the region. However, 3G and 4G mobile internet services remain unavailable and are expected to stay down for a few more days. That distinction matters a lot in practice: residents, students, and businesses with access to a fixed-line DSL connection are back online, while anyone relying primarily on mobile data remains cut off for now.
How We Got Here: A Suspension That Kept Getting Renewed
This wasn’t a single, continuous 99-day outage from one cause — it was a suspension that was partially lifted, then reimposed, over several months:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| June 5, 2026 | Internet suspended in Rawalakot amid protests and a sit-in called by the banned Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) |
| July 23–24, 2026 | Partial restoration in Mirpur, Kotli, and Bhimber after 45–48 days, ahead of phased AJK elections beginning July 27 |
| July 25, 2026 | Services suspended again in AJK’s capital area following a strike and clashes — just two days after being restored |
| August 31, 2026 | AJK PM Iftikhar Gilani orders phased restoration across eight districts; some areas limited to educational institutions only |
| September 10, 2026 | Broadband resumes in AJK’s capital, Muzaffarabad |
| ~September 10-11, 2026 | AJK High Court orders full restoration within 10 days |
| September 14, 2026 (Sunday, 12am) | Broadband and DSL restored across AJK, marking the end of the 99-day cumulative suspension |
The Court’s Role in Forcing This
The final push toward full restoration came from the judiciary rather than a purely administrative decision. AJK High Court Judge Justice Shahid Bahar directed the government to restore internet services within 10 days, ruling on combined petitions filed by the AJK Bar Association and a local citizen. The court did allow one exception — areas where law-and-order conditions still didn’t permit safe restoration, specifically Rawalakot and Sudhnoti districts, which had remained excluded from earlier restoration phases as well.
What the Suspension Actually Cost People
Nearly three months without reliable internet access took a real, documented toll across AJK. Students lost consistent access to online classes and coursework. Businesses reliant on digital payments reported direct financial losses. Freelancers and remote professionals were unable to carry out routine work. Journalists and media professionals faced serious obstacles reporting and filing stories. Government offices themselves also struggled to maintain normal digital operations throughout the disruption.
Why This Kept Happening
The recurring shutdowns trace back to the JAAC’s protest movement, which centers on demands including the abolition of AJK’s 12 reserved assembly seats allocated to Pakistan-based Kashmiri refugees. The government’s pattern has been to suspend connectivity during periods of active unrest — protests, strikes, and clashes — and gradually restore it once conditions stabilize, only to suspend it again when tensions flare back up, as happened just two days after the July restoration.
What Comes Next
With broadband and DSL now restored, the next milestone to watch is the return of 3G and 4G mobile internet, which officials have indicated should follow within a few days. Rawalakot and Sudhnoti remain the clear exceptions — residents there will need to wait for law-and-order conditions to improve before restoration extends to their districts as well.
Final Thoughts
Ending a suspension that stretched across 99 cumulative days — driven as much by a court order as by the government’s own timeline — marks a genuine turning point for AJK residents who’ve spent months navigating disrupted education, business, and communication. Whether this restoration holds, unlike the brief 40-hour window that came and went earlier, will likely depend on how the underlying political tensions behind the JAAC protests develop from here.
