Hundreds of trucks stranded at Iran’s border after Afghanistan’s Internet blackout

Local customs authorities at Iran’s Dogharoun crossing bordering Afghanistan said hundreds of the Iranian and Afghan drivers and their trucks are held up at the border point and are unable to exit because of the Internet blackout across Afghanistan.

“About 1,800 Iranian and Afghan trucks have queued up to leave for neighbouring Afghanistan at the Dogharoun crossing since Monday and their number is increasing as the shutdown continues,” said Esmaeil Pourabed, Director of Dogharoun border terminal in Iran’s eastern Khorasan Razavi Province.

He added that the Afghan customs authority allowed in about 40 trucks on Monday but closed the gates again stranding the trucks on the Iranian side.

The Dogharoun border and customs terminal, located 18 kilometers from the city of Taybad and adjacent to Afghanistan, is one of Iran’s top five cargo terminals in the country.

The main transit at this customs point is the goods from Afghan, Pakistani, and Indian merchants which are transported through the Persian Gulf countries to Iran’s southern port customs of Bandar Abbas and Bandar Lengeh, where they are transited to the Dogharoun crossing.

“The Iranian and Afghan customs officials met on Wednesday and decided to keep the crossing point open on Friday if the business in not back to normal on Thursday,” IRNA quoted Pourabed as saying

He also said that the entry of the trucks from Afghanistan to Iran has been going on without any halt adding that the Internet blackout has only disrupted the movement of trucks from Dogharoun to the Islam Qala Customs in Afghanistan.

Reports said the Taliban government in Kabul has ordered the Internet shutdown for vice and morality reasons, but the Taliban led government has chalked the disruption to technical issues.

It also no explanation for when Internet and mobile services will be fully restored.

The UN said in a statement that more than 43 million Afghans are believed to be offline, after the Taliban allegedly began cutting communications cables several weeks ago, to tackle immorality based on its interpretation of the religious laws.

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