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The Taliban restored internet after a 48-hour blackout in Afghanistan amid global condemnation and warnings from the UN and rights groups.
A Taliban flag flutters near telecom equipment installed over a rooftop providing internet services as the Taliban administration banned fibre-optic internet in Balkh province. (Image: Atif ARYAN/AFP)
The Taliban government restored internet and telecom services, ending a 48-hour blackout that paralysed daily life and drew widespread condemnation at home and abroad. Internet monitor NetBlocks confirmed a “partial restoration” of service while a senior Taliban spokesman in Qatar told the BBC that “all communications” had been restored. For many Afghans, the return of connectivity meant reconnecting with relatives abroad and resuming money transfers that are vital to the country’s struggling economy.
“Everyone is happy, holding their cell phones and talking to their relatives,” a Kabul resident told the BBC, adding, “From women to men and Talibs, everyone was talking on phones after services were restored. There are more crowds now in the city.”
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The shutdown, which began on Monday, forced flight cancellations, bank closures and emptied shopping centres. The UN warned that it left Afghanistan “almost completely cut off from the outside world” and risked deepening one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
International money transfers, a lifeline for many households, were halted. Travel agencies shut down and Afghans abroad turned to radio shows in hopes of passing on messages to relatives inside the country.
The Taliban government has not explained the blackout, though last month a spokesperson for the group’s governor in Balkh province said internet access was being restricted “for the prevention of vices.”
Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions, particularly on women and girls. Education for girls above the age of 12 is banned, most job opportunities for women have been eliminated and in September, books by female authors were removed from universities. Rights groups warned that communications blackouts could become a tool of social control, tightening the Taliban’s grip while cutting Afghans off from global support.
Afghanistan
October 01, 2025, 23:02 IST
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