News

Blasts cut power to millions in Afghanistan before Eid holiday | News


The power outage occurred before the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Authorities said millions of people across 11 provinces in Afghanistan faced power outages on Saturday after two power transmission towers blew up just west of the capital, Kabul.

The power outage came before Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Two towers in Parwan province were bombed late Friday, cutting power to the capital and surrounding provinces.

“The enemy… blew up two power poles with bombs,” Hekmatullah Maiwandi, a spokesman for state-owned power company DABS, said in a video statement.

Five teams from the company have been deployed to carry out the repairs, he added.

“The mounts are installed on top of the mountain and our teams are trying to fix them,” Maiwandi said.

Temporary repairs will be made to restore some power by Saturday night, he added, before the full restoration of the towers can be completed in two weeks.

On Friday, an explosion kill at least 10 worshipers After Friday prayers at a mosque in Kabul, with some reports of the death toll reaching 50. Hundreds of worshipers gathered for prayers on the last Friday of Ramadan and the church Islam was packed.

Two explosions within minutes of each other on Thursday killed at least nine people and wounded 13 in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

“No one is happy this Eid because so many families are mourning the recent explosions. Now the pylons have also blown up,” Khatera Fakhri, a Kabul resident, told AFP news agency.

“Without electricity, we couldn’t prepare for Eid. Everything is difficult.”

Afghanistan is largely dependent on imported electricity from its northern neighbors Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, making transnational power lines a prime target for armed rebels.

Police said two suspects were arrested for attacks on the power supply.

Since taking power, the Taliban has faced successive attacks from the Islamic State in Khorasan province, ISKP (ISIS-K).

The group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks on minority Shia and Sufi communities over the past two weeks, killing dozens of civilians.

Many residential buildings and businesses in Kabul, a city of about 5 million people, started up private generators on Saturday to ensure power supply ahead of Eid.

During the time of the Taliban 20 years of war With the former US-backed government of Afghanistan, the government in Kabul regularly accuses armed groups of targeting communication towers.



Source link

news7h

News7h: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button