Taliban Order Daytime Shutdown of Mobile Phone Networks

Afghanistan based Taliban insurgents have ordered mobile operators in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul to shut down their networks during the daytime - claiming that they are being used to track the movements of Taliban fighters.

The Taliban have previously issued similar demands of the mobile operators, but then faced a backlash from the population who increasingly rely on mobile phones for communications. There are patches of the country where the networks reportedly are switched off at night, but it is sporadic across the south of the country.

It does not seem to have occurred to the Taliban fighters that they can simply switch their phones off if they fear being tracked by them.

"We have informed mobile companies operating in Ghazni to turn off their signals during the daytime now as it endangers the lives of our fighters," Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman told Reuters.

There are about 2,000 mobile phone towers in the country now, and while the Taliban do occasionally attack the towers, repairs tend to be swift and the local populace often set out to protect the towers from future assaults.

Posted to the site on 24th October 2008