The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Abdul Qahir is not sure where to vent his rage - at the Taliban or Afghan cellphone companies that bowed to militant demands to shut down service at sundown.

He blames the nightly telecom blackouts that persist throughout southern Afghanistan for the death of his wife as she gave birth to their fourth child two months ago.

The baby also died.

Qahir, 42, was out of the family compound in the lush Arghandab district, north of Kandahar, on March 30. He had been invited to a friend's wedding.

"I am furious at Taliban and mobile companies," he said in an interview this week. "Because of them I have lost my wife."

Throughout much of the spring, Taliban militants were blowing up telecommunications towers and threatening the five telecom firms in the country after they had refused demands to power down their signals overnight.

The idea was to prevent NATO forces from tracing their movements - especially those of Taliban commanders - and hunting them down.

Five telecom towers were hit in Kandahar City over a two week period in late March, causing routine interruptions in service for 250,000 customers. The companies have since given in to the demand and switched off signals overnight.

In land pulverized by 30 years of war, there are few if any landlines even in major cities.

The cellphone is a lifeline for many Afghans, especially those who live in the vast empty desert in small farming communities. Over five million people in this dirt-poor country, about one-fifth of the population, have pocket communication devices.

Qahir says his wife, whose name he refused to give citing cultural reasons, went in to premature labour and his eldest son, 13-year-old Amed Shah, tried to call a mid-wife for help.

No signal.

He waited. And then tried again. Still nothing.

By this time, the teenager was in a panic with his screaming 37-year-old mother laying helplessly nearby.

His younger brother and sister also looked on helplessly.

Shah tried neighbours for help but it was too late.

"I heard their crying," said Haji Hayatullah, 40, a farmer who lived near the family. "Then I - including my wife - went to Qahir's home and we got to know about the incident. The family was quite tense."

As soon as service was restored, Qahir's phone started ringing.

"I rushed home immediately and found my wife dead," he said. "Now the question is that who is responsible for the death of my wife and orphaned children."

Within weeks of burying his wife, Qahir packed up his children and moved down the road to Kandahar City.

Two of the cellphone companies operating in the province, Roshan and Afghan Bisim, refused comment on the case.

Afghan police had warned this spring that the interruption could cost lives.

Haji Qasim, a police officer in Arghandab, says cops who rely on cellphones in rural areas have had a hard time communicating with each other.

Sensing that they've angered the population and handed NATO a propaganda victory, the Taliban have eased off the pressure on the four private and one-state owned telecommunications company.

But repairing the damage has proved to be difficult and has created enduring frustration and bitterness among Afghans.

Although they won't say how they do it, NATO has been successful in pinpointing mid-level and senior Taliban commanders, killing them with air strikes or capturing them in lightning-swift raids.

On Friday, coalition officials in eastern Afghanistan reported the death of Maulawi Abdul Malik, a senior insurgent leader. He was killed in an Afghan-led operation May 27, said Brig.-Gen. Carlos Branco, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul.

The operation, in Logar province, was designed to bomb-making cells and operations throughout the region.

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