New Delhi: Justifying restrictions imposed in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370, the Centre said on Thursday that due to the preventive steps taken neither a single life was lost nor a single bullet fired. Attorney General K K Venugopal told the top court that instead of questions, the government should be "congratulated" for effectively handling of the situation in the erstwhile state after the "historic" and "unparalleled" decision of August 5.

He told a bench headed by Justice N V Ramana that had internet services been allowed after August 5, then with one click of a button, 10,000 messages could have been sent to thousands of separatists or other militant leaders to congregate which could have resulted in chaos and massive incidents of violence. "It is the past record which is being taken into account before taking any precautionary steps. The record shows series of terrorist incidents in the state.