J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik has said phones are not important for Kashmiris. (PTI photo)

On a day when the Jammu and Kashmir administration restored postpaid mobile phone services in the Valley, J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik has said phone lines were not very important for Kashmiris. He also said the phone lines were only used by terrorists.

According to ANI, speaking at a public event on Monday, Malik said, "Telephone was not important us, but lives of residents are more important."

"People were living without telephone earlier also, you must understand, telephone being used for terrorist mobilisation," Malik added.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration restored postpaid mobile services in the Kashmir Valley after over 2 months since the lockdown was announced on August 5.

Malik further said on Monday that Internet services will also be operational in the Valley soon.

Some 40 lakh postpaid mobile phones have become operational from Monday noon.

Restrictions were imposed after the Centre on August 5 abrogated the state's special status and bifurcated it into Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, which will come into being on October 31.

Partial fixed line telephony was resumed in the Valley on August 17 and by September 4, nearly 50,000 landlines were declared operational.

In Jammu, the communication was restored within days of the blockade and mobile internet was started around mid-August. However, after its misuse, internet facility on cell phones was snapped on August 18.