Taliban oppose cell phone facility

[Naveed Yaseen]

MIRAMSHAH: Local Taliban Saturday said they would not allow the government to launch cellular phone services in North Waziristan tribal region.

In a pamphlet issued here, Taliban threatened to target all towers and installations of mobile telephone companies if installed anywhere in North Waziristan.

The Taliban also threatened to target mobile company and its contractor if they did not stop work on installation of towers in the tribal region. It may be mentioned here that a private cellular company has already started its services at Mirali subdivision of North Waziristan and is planning to launch its services in Miramshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan, and adjoining villages.

Taliban leadership has been fearing that launching mobile phone services was a conspiracy hatched by their enemy, referring to US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, to easily locate positions of Taliban and target them through their unmanned air vehicles or drones.

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