Blasts cut power to millions in Afghanistan

KABUL: 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, authorities said.

Two pylons in the province of Parwan were bombed late on Friday, cutting off electricity to the capital and neighbouring provinces. “The enemies… have blown up two electricity pylons with bombs,” Hekmatullah Maiwandi, a spokesman 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 explosions. The outages come ahead of the Eidul Fitr holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramazan.

Many residential buildings and businesses in Kabul, a city of about five million people, booted up private generators over the weekend to ensure electricity supply ahead of Eid celebrations.

“Nobody is happy during this Eid as so many families are mourning because of the recent blasts. Now the pylons have been blown up too,” Khatera Fakhri, a Kabul resident, told AFP.

“When there is no electricity we can’t prepare for Eid. Everything is so difficult. “

Afghanistan is largely reliant on electricity imported from northern neighbours Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, making cross-country power lines a prime target for insurgents.