Taliban authorities on Monday imposed a nationwide shutdown of communications, weeks after they began severing fibre optic connections to prevent “vice”. In the minutes before it happened, a government official told AFP the shutdown would last “until further notice”. “It is going to be cut, it will happen gradually tonight, there are eight to nine thousand telecommunications pillars it will shut down,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity. On September 16, Balkh provincial spokesman Attaullah Zaid said fibre optic internet was completely banned in northern province on the Taliban leader’s orders. It is the first time since the Taliban government won their insurgency in 2021 that communications have been shutdown in the country.