Srinagar, Feb 16 (IANS) Thousands of prepaid mobile subscribers in the Kashmir Valley were stumped Thursday as vendors declined to recharge their connections on the police direction for proper verification of the phone users before each recharge.

"We have been told to maintain registers with complete details of those prepaid subscribers who approach us with recharge requests," said Abdul Majid, a vendor in mobile phone recharge.

"The procedure is causing lot of problems for us. Complete details and verifications of prepaid phones have already been made before issuance of SIM cards to the users by various service providers," Majid said.

The local police have recently issued directions to telecom service providers in the Kashmir Valley to maintain records of those recharging their prepaid phones from time to time.

"This has been done to prevent misuse of prepaid cell connections in the valley. The service providers have been asked to furnish to us details of various recharges made through them every fortnight," Ashaq Hussain Bukhari, senior superintendent of police of Srinagar district, told IANS.

"This has also been done in case of renewal of internet connections here", Bukhari added.

Cell phone users said the new instructions are cumbersome and inconvenient.

"I have taken prepaid mobile phone connections with proper documents for my wife and three daughters. Do the new instructions mean my wife and daughters have to queue up before a recharge vendor each time they want to recharge their cell phones?" said Dr. Bashir Ahmad War, a retired senior veterinarian.

Vendors in Srinagar were refusing to provide recharge services to the users Thursday.

"We have to get complete details and format for the new procedure. We do not want to be in trouble," said another recharge vendor here.

Earlier, SMS service was banned in Jammu and Kashmir on prepaid phones, which is still operational, while in 2010 all the prepaid cell phone services were temporarily withdrawn in the state citing security reasons. The services were retored after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah intervened in the matter.