Taleban order strict phone blackout in Afghan north

The group's
order in Bala Morghab, a remote district of Badghis province bordering
Turkmenistan, follows similar edicts in recent years in the south and east,
where the insurgency is strongest, but also more recently in the north.
Residents
said the Taleban had ordered mobile phone operators to only turn their networks
on for two hours per day, at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., in the most draconian
restrictions imposed by the militants on mobile phone use anywhere in the
country.
Insurgents
say Afghan and foreign troops use the mobile networks to track their fighters
and accuse ordinary Afghans of using the devices to spy on the militants.
For
years, mobile phone restrictions have been a fact of life for Afghans in more
insecure areas in the south and east where phones are usually cut off at night.
In May,
the Taleban imposed restrictions in northern Kunduz province, which has seen a
spike in violence over the last year.
"With
the help of mobile phones, the traitors pass on our whereabouts to the
government and foreigners," Bari, a shopkeeper in Bala Morghab, quoted a Taleban
commander saying at a meeting with residents who pleaded to be allowed more use
of the phones.
"Ever
since the restriction, there have been fewer attacks on us," the
shopkeeper quoted the commander as saying.
The
restrictions were imposed on the area nearly three weeks ago and residents say
they are not only a nuisance for the population of around 200,000, but could be
potentially dangerous in times of emergency.
"We
went and appealed to the Taleban to have mercy on us but they said their
fighters were more important," shopkeeper Bari told Reuters in a phone
interview during one of the brief periods when calls are possible.
The
provincial governor's spokesman, Sayed Sharafuddin Majeedi, confirmed the Taleban's
decree and said the government was unable to do anything to keep the phones on.
"We
know about the recent restriction but the private companies don't listen to
us," Majeedi told Reuters from Badghis.
Mobile
phone operators in the past have said they are forced to comply with the Taleban
edicts, or risk having their network masts destroyed by the militants.
Insurgents have blown up masts in several parts of the country when operators
have not complied.
Violence
in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taleban were overthrown in 2001 with
casualties on all sides at record levels and militants spreading out of their
southern and eastern strongholds into once-peaceful areas in the north and
west.
The Taleban
and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan largely rely on mobile and satellite
phones to allow fighters to communicate with field commanders and to relay
media statements.
Most of
Afghanistan's infrastructure has been either damaged or destroyed during 30
years of war. There is virtually no working landline telephone system in the
country and the success of the mobile phone industry has been one of the few
bright spots in a country that has attracted little foreign investment.
Five mobile
operators, three of them foreign firms, with an estimated investment of several
hundred million dollars have set up business in Afghanistan since the fall of
the Taleban.