Neither am I, but I do know a little bit about communications. Telco grade connections to any SEP (Signaling End Point) require link diversity. Link Diversity is described as more than one link with no more than 35% capacity on any link without augmentation. If the Indians use this same cable, they will likely have redundant links (Link Diversity). The broken cable is probably fiber, and the Pakistanis are probably relying on older, copper carrier cables as a backup, and they are unable to carry the traffic loads. The Paks probably got caught by this outage before they could get another cable installed. Bummer.
Satelites do not have the capacity to carry the traffic loads either, and are very expensive.
I was involved in some of the pre-lay work for this noodle. It is a new one, called SEA-ME-WE 4, just laid in early '05 for ALCATEL.
I am, further, aware of a commercial US flag spook ship that was installing seabed sensors in the Strait of Hormuz a couple of months past. Reckon there might be any connection?