Afghanistan is experiencing a second day without communication or internet services after the Taliban authorities cut the fiber optic network.

Earlier in September, the Taliban began cutting communications and internet in some provinces, a move they said aimed to prevent “immorality.”

On Monday night into Tuesday, mobile phone signals and internet service gradually weakened until the “national total connectivity rate dropped to less than 1% of normal levels, making it a total outage,” according to NetBlocks, an internet and cybersecurity monitoring organization.

This is the first time communications have been cut in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and imposed laws based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia.

Najeebullah, 42, a shop owner in Kabul, said: “We are blind without phones and internet.” He added, “Our business depends on phones. Orders are delivered through them. It’s like a holiday, everyone is at home. The market is completely frozen.”

Minutes before the outage, a government source told AFP that the service would remain suspended “until further notice.”

The source, who requested anonymity, added: “The service will be gradually cut tonight, between eight to nine thousand communication poles will be disabled.”

The source confirmed: “There is no other means or system of communication… the banking sector, customs, and everything across the country will be affected.”

NetBlocks said a “total communication service cut has started nationwide,” noting that the incident “matches a deliberate service shutdown.”

An Afghan man in his forties living in Oman, via text message to the agency, requested anonymity: “Due to the cut of communication and internet services, I am completely cut off from my family in Kabul.” He added, “I don’t know what’s happening, I am really worried.”

Phone services often run over the same fiber optic lines, especially in countries lacking strong communication infrastructure.

In recent weeks, internet service in Afghanistan has been very slow or intermittent.

On September 16, the spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Balkh province, Attaullah Zaid, announced a complete ban on fiber optic internet and “network disconnection,” following an order from the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. He wrote on social media: “This measure was taken to combat immorality, and alternative options will be provided nationwide to meet communication needs.”

AFP reporters at the time noted the same restrictions were imposed in the northern provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar, as well as in Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar, and Uruzgan in the south.

In 2024, Kabul announced that the fiber optic network, deployed by previous authorities at the start of the third millennium and spanning 9,350 kilometers, is a “priority… to bring the country closer to the rest of the world and eradicate poverty.”