Internet Services In Herat Disrupted By Taliban's 12-Hour Blackout
Taliban authorities ordered a 12-hour shutdown of all internet services in Herat province overnight, service providers said Tuesday.
Fixed internet connections were cut from 8 p.m. Monday until 8 a.m. Tuesday, sources at local providers told Afghanistan International. Services resumed in the morning, but the reason for the blackout was not immediately clear.
The move comes as the Taliban have blocked fibre-optic internet in several provinces over the past 10 days, prompting some areas, including Herat, to rely on DSL connections via landlines.
A Herat-based source said the outage did not appear linked to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s order to suspend fibre-optic internet nationwide and was likely imposed for security reasons.
It was the first time the Taliban had ordered a complete overnight internet shutdown in a province. Before returning to power in 2021, the group often pressured telecom companies in rural areas to cut service at night.
The Taliban’s wider curbs on internet access have drawn widespread criticism and caused severe disruption to daily life across Afghanistan.
