Indian authorities, who according to activists lead the world when it comes to cutting the internet, snapped Kashmir’s access when New Delhi scrapped the region’s seven-decade-old autonomy.

In the past two weeks of violent protests across India against a new citizenship law, mobile internet has been cut in swathes of the country and fixed-line access in places too.

In Kashmir, a security lock down imposed in August has been eased and some cellphones now work again. But hundreds of political leaders and others remain locked up — and there is no internet.

In the main city Srinagar, Mohammad Irfan waited in a long line inside a large hall run by a state-owned telecommunications firm.