SRINAGAR: J&K police raided the Srinagar house of Hurriyat veteran Syed Ali Shah Geelani late on Tuesday and detained a cook and domestic help for allegedly uploading a video of the ailing separatist on social media by using a VPN (virtual private network) to bypass firewalls.

The raid to pick up cook Sirajuddin Gania, who is from Tral in Pulwama district , and domestic help Imtiaz Ahmed came within hours of inspector general (Kashmir range) Vijay Kumar saying that the police were onto internet users masking their identities under VPNs to "spread fabricated news to instigate people and preach separatism".

The police had earlier filed an FIR at the Cyber police station under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act to prosecute anyone circumventing the social media ban using VPNs.

On Wednesday, DGP Dilbagh Singh said the administration was aware of the widespread use of VPNs to access sites blocked in the Valley, but was primarily concerned about people "misusing" technology to spread lies and incite violence.

"We know VPNs are being used in J&K despite our instructions not to do so. But we have drawn the line between use and misuse," Singh said. "The government is maintaining surveillance on misuse of the internet."

According to the DGP, the decision to only restore 2G mobile internet for both postpaid and prepaid customers on January 14 was based on an assessment of how much the situation on the ground had improved since August 5, when J&K went into lockdown.

