India said on Friday it was restoring high-speed mobile internet in occupied Kashmir for the first time since August 2019, when the government withdrew the special rights of the restive Muslim-majority region.

Jammu and Kashmir was India's only Muslim-majority region before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government split it into two, including an enclave with many Buddhists, and took direct control of both.

“4G mobile internet services being restored in entire J&K,” local administration spokesman Rohit Kansal said on Twitter.

India broke up occupied Kashmir in mid-2019 by sending additional troops mainly to the Kashmir Valley, and detaining political leaders to crack down on dissent in the region where India has been fighting an insurgency for decades.

One of those detained and released politicians, former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah, tweeted his happiness at the New Delhi government's move on the internet.

“4G Mubarak!” he said, using an Urdu word for congratulations.

“For the first time since Aug 2019, all of J&K will have 4G mobile data. Better late than never”.