Internet services were restored in parts of Afghanistan on Wednesday after a two-day nationwide blackout, though sources said Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada remains opposed to reconnecting the country.
Two sources told Amu that the decision to reactivate services in Kabul and other areas was made by the Taliban’s chief minister and minister of telecommunications. Akhundzada, however, still supports keeping the country offline, they said.
The Taliban had suspended all internet and telecommunications services on Monday evening, cutting Afghans off from relatives inside and outside the country. The shutdown disrupted banking, commerce and humanitarian work, and grounded flights at Kabul International Airport.
In Kabul, residents said the blackout left the city paralyzed. “For two days we had no way of contacting our families,” one resident said. Others described the capital as a “dead city” and called the Taliban’s move unjustified.
Services began returning late Wednesday in Kabul and several other provinces, though connectivity remained unstable and limited to certain networks.
The Taliban have not issued any official explanation for the outage or for its partial restoration.
