ISIL claims attack on power pylon in Kabul to damage main electricity line

Local media suggests that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for blowing up a power pylon, which has left Kabul in utter darkness since Thursday. As per the reports of Khaama Press, ISIL said in a statement that soldiers of the caliphate placed a bomb on an energy pylon in Kabul to cause damage to the power grid.

In Kabul's northern Shakardara area, the power pylon was exploded. Kabul's and other provinces' electricity was cut off.
Several occurrences of power pylon detonation have occurred in the country under earlier administrations as well. According to Khaama Press, it caused De Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), the country's energy authority, to suffer millions of Afghani financial damages.

Three people arrested

The Taliban-announced temporary government's Interior Ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti said Saturday that three people have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the dynamiting of a power pylon that darkened Afghanistan's capital Kabul. However, it was not specified that if the suspects were linked to ISIL. According to Xinhua, Khosto said that they have apprehended three people in connection with the targeting and destruction of a power pylon, and an investigation is ongoing. The official also stated that the investigation's findings would be made public. 

Unknown men demolished the pylon by detonating an explosive device, according to officials with the Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, and work to repair and restore power to the city is still underway. Afghans rely heavily on electricity supplied from their northern neighbours, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, making cross-country power cables a prime target for rebels. Islamic State has continued to carry out horrific atrocities despite the Taliban's promises to fight it.

The security situation in Afghanistan

Since the Taliban took control of the country in mid-August, the security situation in Afghanistan has remained tense. In recent weeks, IS militants have carried out deadly bomb strikes in a number of provinces. IS claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed 60 people on October 15 in a Shia mosque in Kandahar earlier this week. In eastern Afghanistan, two civilians were killed in a roadside explosion targeting a Taliban vehicle.

(Inputs from ANI)

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