Internet access was restored across parts of Afghanistan on Wednesday, two days after a sudden nationwide shutdown paralyzed the economy, grounded planes and led to swirling rumors about the reasons behind the blackout.
The internet outage, coupled with a suspension of cellphone services, deepened a sense of dread and uncertainty for millions of Afghans already feeling isolated by the drastic restrictions on individual freedoms imposed by the Taliban government.
The absence of public communication from Taliban figures and the claims by government othat they could explain neither the shutdown nor the service resumption sowed confusion and anger.
“I want the government to make it clear: Why is the internet cut off? And how long it will last?” Aqa Gul Panjshiri, a trader importing food items, care products and cigarettes into Afghanistan, said before service resumed on Wednesday.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesman, and Hamdullah Fitrat, his deputy, did not respond to multiple requests for comments.
“I still don’t have the reason for the internet cutoff,” Inayatullah Alokozay, the spokesman for the Afghan ministry of telecommunications, said Wednesday evening.
While the reason for the shutdown remained unclear, its origin was not, according to an international diplomatic assessment whose authenticity was verified by The New York Times, and three former and current foreign officials based in the region. They attributed it to a new order by Afghanistan’s leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada.
The shutdown came a few weeks after Mr. Akhundzada ordered a crackdown on the internet that affected about half the country’s 34 provinces in mid-September.
While mobile internet remained available when earlier restrictions were imposed, all forms of telecommunications went suddenly offline shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday. That suggested a coordinated move to cut the country off, said an Afghan telecommunications engineer who worked on national technology infrastructure projects before the Taliban’s return to power. The engineer spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation.
Kabul, a city of six million, was plunged into an eerie quiet for two days. Most flights to and from the airport were canceled. Banks were closed, preventing people from collecting their salaries on the last day of the month, or from receiving remittances from relatives abroad that provide a lifeline for the country’s economy.
Hundreds of thousands of girls who rely on the internet for online education because the Taliban have banned schooling girls beyond sixth grade, were cut off from the rest of the world.
For all the restrictions that the Taliban have imposed in recent years, none matched the scale of the countrywide shutdown, residents and foreign diplomats said.
Until now, the Taliban had limited themselves to imposing brief, localized shutdowns, including in Kabul, the capital, shortly after they seized power to prevent protests against their rule. They have also restricted access to some platforms, like TikTok, and prevented content creators from posting videos on YouTube.
The crackdown is reminiscent of the Taliban’s first years in power, when they banned internet use from 1996 to 2001. Today’s Afghanistan, however, presents a different picture. Smartphone use has proliferated with the expansion of 4G networks in recent years, and countless Afghans use social media platforms, mobile money applications and other online services every day.
The shutdown stunned Afghans living in the country and abroad, as well as business owners who have striven to keep Afghanistan’s battered economy afloat.
Mr. Panjshiri, the trader, said o he had been unable to track a container with $150,000 worth of goods, or to receive money from clients that he said he needed to pay 15 employees.
“After the takeover I trusted the government and I didn’t take my investment out of the country, he said, “but now everything is confusing and I can’t make a decision.”
Senior foreign officials and foreign diplomats posted in the region described the move to shut down the internet as reckless. Humanitarian workers said they could not do their work, and were hampered in their response to the aftermath of an earthquake last month that left more than 2,200 dead, or the accommodation of more than 2.7 million Afghans who have returned to Afghanistan from neighboring Iran and Pakistan this year.
One senior humanitarian officer working for an international organization said the outage made it impossible to track its workers in the field and keep them safe. Half of Afghanistan’s 43 million people need humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.
For some Afghans, the internet shutdown worsened life-threatening situations.
Jawad Mohammadi, a resident of Mazar-i-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan, had traveled to Kabul with his brother, who was suffering from severe kidney stones and needed to be hospitalized. Doctors had recommended immediate surgery, but Mr. Mohammadi, 37, was struggling to gather funds from relatives.
“The hospital refuses to proceed with the operation unless we pay in advance,” he said while the internet was still down.
Service resumed across the country the same way it had cut out two days earlier: abruptly, and with no announcement.
In Kabul, the sound of calls and the buzz of notifications filled the streets as night fell on and residents reconnected with friends and family. Taliban government workers stepped out of their offices, sitting casually on the grass and catching up on time lost on WhatsApp, the favored communication platform among the group’s members.
Mr. Mohammadi, whose brother was in the hospital, said he had been able to reach his family. “They will send the money tomorrow,” he said.
Zia ur-Rehman and Francesca Regalado contributed reporting.
Elian Peltier is an international correspondent for The Times, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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