RASC News Agency: The Taliban’s Telecommunications Authority in Herat has announced the commencement of a door-to-door campaign aimed at registering mobile SIM cards across various districts in the province. According to a report from Bakhtar News Agency, which operates under Taliban control, this initiative is purportedly intended to facilitate access for residents. On Monday, November 7, the agency cited Khairullah Khairkhwa, the head of the Taliban’s Telecommunications Department in Herat, stating that the effort is designed to ease the process for residents in the province’s districts.
The report reveals that during this campaign, employees of telecommunications companies will visit homes to register the SIM cards of residents in Herat’s districts. A few days earlier, the Taliban’s Telecommunications Authority in Herat had issued a warning to residents that unregistered SIM cards would be deactivated within two months. Previously, the Taliban’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology had announced that, to date, 13.9 million mobile SIM cards had been registered across the country. The ministry stated that a total of 25 million active SIM cards currently exist in Afghanistan.
The ministry has also urged individuals who have acquired SIM cards from official telecommunications offices to re-register them. The issue of unregistered SIM cards has persisted since the previous government, during which such cards were freely sold in markets and exploited by opposition groups, including the Taliban itself. Some residents of Herat assert that the Taliban’s initiative is not genuinely aimed at their benefit, but rather forms part of a broader agenda to exert control over the populace.
Since their takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban has sought to tighten its grip on Afghanistani citizens, imposing numerous restrictions on social media and aiming for increased control in this realm. The registration of SIM cards will facilitate these efforts.
