Kabul in darkness as Taliban blow up power pylon

PUL-I-KUMRI/ KABUL in northern Baghlan province, the power utility said on Monday.

In Kabul, De Afghanistan Breshna Shirkat (DABS) said the militants destroyed the pylon with a bomb 22 kilometer from a sub-station in the Baghlan capital at around 2am.

The statement said a technical team had arrived in the area to repair the pylon. The problem would be fixed in a few hours, DABS promised.

Mahmood Haqmal, the Baghlan governor spokesman, confirmed the pylon was blown up in the Gylagi area of Doshi district. He told Pajhwok Afghan News the militants had planted explosives under the pylon.

A resident of the area, Mohammad Alam, said: “We did not hear the predawn explosion but, in the morning, we saw the fallen pylon.”

Two days back, the Taliban had warned of snapping transmission lines to Kabul in Baghlan if work on distribution of electricity was not launched in certain areas of the province.

In a statement, the insurgents said some areas of Baghlan were still deprived of the facility in breach of the commitments held out by the government.

The Taliban destroyed an electricity pylon in Dand-i-Shababuddin last year, cutting off the imported electricity supply to Kabul for 40 days.

sa/mud