Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said the suspension of internet services in Jammu and Kashmir has helped in averting some major terror incidents in the last two months.

Singh also said those who are opposing the curb on the internet either have a vested interest in the continuance of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir or they want to play politics at the cost of India's sovereignty and common man's safety.Speaking at separate meetings of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee, known as 'Disha', in Dodaand Kishtwar districts, Singh said the elimination of several terrorists in Kishtwar was possible because of the suspension of the internet.The suspension has also helped in flushing out terrorists operating in Kishtwar and other parts of the Chenab region, the Union minister for the PMO said.He said certain political activists in the Kashmir valley have been continuously raising a hueand cry over the suspension of internet because they are the"beneficiaries of terrorism" and and their politics has, over thelast three decades, "survived due to dismal voter turn-out under the fearof militancy".

"But more pathetic is the case of the fringe elementsin Jammu region who have fallen in the trap of this pro-terror jargon and aretrying to denounce the suspension of internet," he said.

Singh said these political activists are devoid of issuesand are therefore desperate to make an issue even if it is at the cost ofcommon man's life.

He said some of these fringe leaders, who otherwise proclaimthemselves to be nationalists or patriots or self-styled guardians of Jammu,are actually issuing thoughtless statements which are music for Pakistan andalso an endorsement as well as support for those who have been executing terrorattacks in Jammu region.The minister pointed out to the recent nabbing of theterrorists who were travelling from Lakhanpur towards Jammu and said they couldbe intercepted due to the ban on the internet.

Similarly, he said, the other day, some terrorists beingchased out of Kishtwar by security forces, barged into the house of a localcitizen in Batote but were liquidated because they were devoid of the internetconnection to be guided by their cohorts.

At the same time, Singh said, a number of infiltration bidsfrom the border could be foiled because a stray infiltrator, who did manage tocross over to this side could not be helped by his associates to carry out furthermovement as had been the practice earlier by using internet, Whatsapp andsimilar means.Singh said, some critics tend to look at the restrictions"through the prism of abrogated Article 370".

He called upon the "learned" journalists to do athorough scanning of past 30 years of militancy and find out on how many occasionsthe internet was suspended.

At times, it was suspended for an equal or even longerperiod, when Article 370 was very much in place, he said and asked media todraw comparisons between the pace of development activity during those periodsof internet suspensions and the present period.