Afghan traders in Pakistan hit as Taliban Internet blackout cripples cross-border business

Afghan traders in Pakistan hit as Taliban Internet blackout cripples cross-border business

PESHAWAR: Afghan traders in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar say their businesses and family ties have been thrown into disarray after Taliban authorities imposed a sweeping Internet blackout across their homeland earlier this week.

Internet connectivity in Afghanistan has dropped to less than one percent of normal levels, according to watchdog NetBlocks, after Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered the shutdown “until further notice” to combat what officials called “vice.”

The outage has worsened conditions in one of the world’s poorest and most war-torn countries, already reeling from decades of conflict, humanitarian crises and a recent earthquake, rights groups said.

“We have big businesses with hotels [in Afghanistan],” Hajji Khan Muhammad, a kitchenware trader at Peshawar’s Board Bazaar near the Afghan border, said. “But our customers, they don’t buy [our products] until we send them pictures.”