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Taliban gives Afghan phone companies a 3-day ultimatum

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed said Monday that the US and other foreign troops in the country are using mobile phone signals to track down the insurgents and launch attacks against them.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 12:16 February 25, 2008
  • Gulf News

Kandahar: Taliban militants threatened to blow up telecom towers across Afghanistan if mobile phone companies do not switch off their signals for a 10-hour stretch starting at dusk.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed said Monday that the US and other foreign troops in the country are using mobile phone signals to track down the insurgents and launch attacks against them.

The Taliban have "decided to give a three-day deadline to all mobile phone companies to stop their signals from 5pm to 3am in order to stop the enemies from getting intelligence through mobile phones and to stop Taliban and civilian casualties," Mujaheed told The Associated Press
via telephone.

"If those companies do not stop their signal within three days, the Taliban will target their towers and their offices," he added.

Mobile phones were introduced to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. They have become the principal means of communication and one of the fastest-growing and most profitable sectors in the country's economy.

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