Pakistan shut down mobile phone networks to fight al-Qaeda attacks

Early this week, Pakistan made the bold move of shutting down mobile phone networks overnight.....

14:29 22 August 2012

Early this week, Pakistan made the bold move of shutting down mobile phone networks overnight to prevent Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.

  

The timing was awkward as celebrations began for the biggest Muslim festival of the year.

 

The controversial security measure was imposed on Sunday night at 8:00 pm, which is a time when millions of citizens phone each other with Eid al-Fitr greetings. 

 

Networks were working again on Monday mid-morning with the news and the motives behind the outage just coming to light now.

 

Major cities went without mobile phone communications. Pakistan's two largest cities, Karachi and Lahore, were shut down completely as was Quetta, in the insurgency-torn province of Baluchistan.

 

Speaking on state TV, Rehman Malik, the country's interior minister, released a statement defending their actions: "We regret that it had to be suspended in some cities due to the risk of terrorist attacks.

 

"We regret inconvenience caused to youths and children."

 

The minister went on to say that he was sure that "a few areas of Punjab province" were being targeted by terrorists. 

 

It is believed that the terrorists in question use mobile phones to coordinate attacks or trigger remote explosives.

 

In figures revealed by The Telegraph, Pakistan says 35,000 people (which includes upwards of 3,000 soldiers) have been killed as a result of terrorism since the 9/11 attacks in America and the resulting 2001 US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan.