On July 20, residents of Kana tehsil in Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa staged a protest in Shahpur bazaar, expressing concern over prolonged disruption of mobile phone and internet services, which they said had severely affected their daily lives and communication with family members abroad.
The demonstrators carried placards and banners inscribed with demands for restoration of mobile network services and raised slogans against elected representatives. The protestors said mobile connectivity in their area had been non-functional for the past four months, with no improvement despite repeated complaints.
Abbas Khan, a local activist, said, “Two mobile networks were available in the area, but both were out of order, while the 4G internet was often inaccessible to the users.” He added that residents paid for services with their hard-earned money but were unable to benefit from them due to poor connectivity.
Ubaidullah Abid highlighted the impact on financial transactions and online activities, saying, “The spotty networks had rendered their life paralysed as there were no proper commercial banks in the entire tehsil, and the people mostly used Jazz Cash and Easypaisa services for their online businesses and other transactions, but unfortunately, they faced difficulty and could not avail the essential services.”
Muhammad Hassan warned authorities of further action if the issue remained unresolved including a protest and blockading the Karakoram Highway.
In a separate development in Mardan, residents of Mohabbatabad and adjoining areas protested outside the Mardan Central Jail on Thursday, demanding that mobile phone jammers installed inside the prison be limited to within the jail premises.
Speaking to the media, Malak Shokat, Arshid Khan (former union nazim), and Umar Hayat said high-frequency jammers had entirely blocked signals in their residential areas. The protesters claimed this disruption had resulted in critical issues during emergencies. “We are being denied a basic necessity — communication,” one protester said.
They argued that extending jamming signals beyond jail boundaries violated Pakistan Telecommunication Authority regulations and Supreme Court and High Court rulings. Protesters further alleged that despite the jammers, mobile phones and drugs were still reportedly being used inside the prison, raising concerns about the system’s effectiveness.
The demonstrators urged prison officials to restrict jammer coverage strictly within the jail compound to restore communication services in surrounding localities. The protest later ended peacefully.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident in Chakesar tehsil, the body of an elderly man was found in the Jan Paparh area on Sunday. Muhammad Ghayur Khan, a tehsil municipal administration official, said the body was shifted to the tehsil headquarters hospital. He added that a motorcycle was found nearby and the man, reportedly from the Toranzo area of Charsadda district, had likely died of cardiac arrest.
