Around 68 telecom sites in 13 lots are either blocked or damaged due to security issues in Balochistan, according to documents available with ProPakistani.
Additionally, 15 telecom sites in 4 lots in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are either damaged or blocked due to the aforementioned issue.
According to the document, reprobates carried out 47 activities on telecom sites in different districts of Balochistan during the last four years. Reprobates carried out 10 activities on telecom sites in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2018.
According to the document, Awaran, Lasbela, Khuzdar, Kalat, Kharan, Bolan, Turbat, Gwadar, Dera Bughti, Barkhan, Kech, Sibi, Killa Saifullah, and Panjgur are the most challenging districts in Balochistan in perspective to law and order situation. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Bajor, North Waziristan Agency, FR Bannu, FR Lakki Marwat, Hangu, and Bannu are the most challenging districts.
According to the document, in Balochistan 27 telecom sites are blocked in the Awaran Lesbala lot, 11 sites are either damaged or blocked in Kalat lot, 1 site is blocked in the Khuzdar lot, 11 sites are blocked in Kech and 9 sites are blocked in Panjur lot, 6 sites are blocked in National & Motorway lot whereas 02 sites are blocked are damaged in a small lot and 1 in Gwadar lot.
Due to security issues, 11 telecom sites are damaged or blocked in North Waziristan Agency, 3 telecom sites are blocked in FR Bannu whereas 1 site has been blocked in FR LakiMarwat.
According to the document, 42 telecom site engineers and workers have been abducted in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2018. 30 persons have been recovered by security forces in various operations whereas 12 persons are still missing.
Ministry of IT & Telecom officials say that the security forces have fully cooperated to recover the abducted employees from telecom sites and many security personnel also lost their lives in the operations conducted to recover these persons. The Ministry of IT is working together with the Ministry of Defense for the security of these areas and the maintenance of the towers.
