Cellular services will remain suspended in select cities during 9th and 10th Moharram. Cellular services in tier 1, 2, and in some cases, tier 3 cities will remain suspended during 9th and 10th Moharram, ProPakistani has confirmed with sources.
For reference, tier 1 includes major cities like provincial capitals, and the tiers after that include smaller ones.
While details can not be shared here for security reasons, we can confirm that a range of cities (several dozens in numbers) will face cellular suspension during different times on Ashura. Suspension of mobile phone signals could start as early as 5 am and may last up to 11 pm.
While details on other cities remain confidential, sources have revealed that several sensitive districts of Balochistan will face outages during the aforementioned time. This was decided during a high-level meeting on Friday, chaired by Advisor to the Chief Minister on Home and Tribal Affairs, Mir Ziaullah Langove.
More than 20,000 security personnel has been deployed in the province for Muharram and control rooms have been set up at provincial and district levels to monitor the situation. Pillion riding has also been banned in Balochistan from August 6 to August 16.
The schedule for the outage could be diffident for various cities, depending on the law and order situation and the timings of the Ashura processions in the area. Customers are advised to take precautionary measures to deal with the cellular outage in case of emergencies.