• Source:JND
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Afghanistan Telecom Shutdown News: Afghanistan's internet and mobile telephone services were down nationwide on Tuesday, residents and monitoring services said. In the past, the Taliban have voiced concern about pornography online, with authorities having cut fibre-optic links to some provinces in recent weeks, as officials cited morality concerns.

NetBlocks, an international internet access monitoring organisation, said the internet was disconnected in phases. "Afghanistan is now in the midst of a total internet blackout as Taliban authorities move to implement morality measures," NetBlocks said on its website.

Telecommunications blackout would continue indefinitely: Taliban

A Taliban spokesperson announced that the nationwide telecommunications blackout would continue indefinitely, BBC reported. Afghanistan's independent broadcaster Tolo News urged the public to monitor its social media channels for the latest information, anticipating interruptions to its broadcast television and radio operations.

Flight cancelled and delayed

Local news outlets reported widespread cancellations and delays affecting flights at Kabul's international airport. Flight tracking platform Flightradar24 indicated that no fewer than eight flights—either inbound or outbound—set for Tuesday at Kabul International Airport were scrapped.

BBC sources among diplomatic personnel warned that the internet outage could severely disrupt banking transactions and online commerce across the country.

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Residents of Kabul shared with the BBC that their high-speed fiber-optic connections had failed late in the afternoon, roughly at 5:00 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. GMT).

As a result, the full extent of the disruptions may not become apparent to many until Tuesday morning, coinciding with the reopening of financial institutions and other commercial activities. Fiber-optic lines enable lightning-quick data transmission and underpin a significant portion of global internet infrastructure.

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(With inputs from agency)