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Millions of people across 11 provinces in Afghanistan face blackouts after two power transmission towers were blown up
Millions of people across 11 provinces in Afghanistan faced blackouts on Saturday after two power transmission towers were blown up just west of the capital Kabul, authorities said. The outages come ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan. Two pylons in the province of Parwan were bombed late on Friday, cutting off electricity to the capital and neighboring provinces. "The enemies... have blown up two electricity pylons with bombs," Hekmatullah Maiwandi, a front man for the state-run DABS electricity company, said in a video statement. Five teams from the firm have been deployed to carry out repairs, he added. "The pylons are installed on top of mountains and our teams are trying to fix them," Maiwandi said. Temporary repairs would be performed to partially restore power by Saturday night before a full restoration of the towers can be completed in two weeks, he added. Police said two suspects have been arrested over the earth-shattering kabooms. Many residential buildings and businesses in Kabul, a city of about five million people, booted up private generators Saturday to ensure electricity supply ahead of Eid celebrations. Afghanistan is largely reliant on electricity imported from northern neighbors Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, making cross-country power lines a prime target for turbans. Related: Parwan: 2022-03-21 Kabul Rejects Gen. McKenzie's Remarks on Daesh Parwan: 2022-02-26 Taliban started large-scale operation in Kabul, Panjshir and few more provinces, supposedly searching for Daesh and NRF supporters Parwan: 2021-12-23 Turkey 'Deeply Concerned' by New Wave of Afghan Migrants Posted by: Fred 2022-05-01 |
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