Governor Satya Pal Malik on Sunday defended the communication curbs in Jammu and Kashmir, saying “If there’s no telephone for 10 days, so be it” and stressing that this was preferable to the loss of lives.

“Our attitude is such that there should be no loss of human lives. If there’s no telephone for 10 days, so be it. But we will roll back these measures very soon,” he told news agency ANI in Delhi.

Malik was in the national capital to attend the funeral of former finance minister Arun Jaitley.