Pakistan, Oct. 3 -- On the evening of 29 September, Afghans reached for their phones and found nothing. Calls would not connect. Apps would not load. Flight boards at Kabul airport froze mid-update. For two days, a nation of 43 million people was cast into deliberate quiet. Then, as suddenly as it began, the signal returned. Taliban officials spoke of "decayed fibre cables." Few believed them.

Independent monitors told a different story. NetBlocks, which tracks global connectivity, confirmed a large-scale internet shutdown that reduced national traffic to a fraction of normal levels. Regional media had already documented earlier cuts to high-speed access in multiple provinces, and The Washington Post reported that officials in Balkh just...