“Access shall be limited only to the whitelisted sites and not to any social media applications,” the Jammu and Kashmir home department said in a notification.

Mobile phone data access will also be restored, but limited to slower second-generation (2G) connections, the department added.

100 days after Modi’s Kashmir crackdown, locals see bleak future

India is the world leader in cutting internet services, activists say, and access was also temporarily suspended in other parts of the country during recent protests against a new citizenship law.

Since August freedom of movement in heavily-militarised Kashmir has been gradually restored as has cellphone coverage, but apart from at a handful of locations there has been no regular internet access.

This made life even harder for the region’s seven million inhabitants and hit the local economy hard.

Modi’s government said that the blackout was for security reasons, aimed at restricting the ability of armed militants – who it says are backed by arch-rival Pakistan – to communicate.

The Supreme Court however criticised the government earlier this month for the move, calling it an “arbitrary exercise of power”.

Beaten, stripped, lips sewn up: troops trample on human rights in Kashmir

The court also stated that having access to the internet “is integral to an individual’s right to freedom of speech and expression”.

A bloody insurgency against Indian rule that has raged in the scenic Himalayan region for decades has left tens of thousands dead, mostly civilians.