Saboteurs cut StormFiber’s underground fibre cables at three separate locations in Gulzar-e-Hijri, Karachi on Wednesday morning. The attack disconnected thousands of subscribers during the Eid holidays.
StormFiber completed restoration efforts and confirmed all affected users are back online. The company traced the damage to unlicensed cable operators active in the area. No official confirmation has identified specific individuals or groups responsible, but sources familiar with the incident point to local unlicensed internet providers as the likely culprits.
The damage hit three distinct points along StormFiber’s underground network. That pattern suggests coordination rather than accidental disruption.
Similar attacks on licensed ISP infrastructure in Karachi recur around major national holidays, when household dependence on internet connectivity peaks. Timing a sabotage around Eid inflicts maximum disruption. Families rely on connectivity for calls, streaming, and digital payments during the holiday, making outages especially damaging for both users and providers.
Unlicensed cable operators have long occupied grey areas of Pakistan’s telecom market. They offer cheap connectivity without PTA licensing or regulatory oversight, competing directly with licensed ISPs like StormFiber in dense urban localities. That competition sometimes spills into physical sabotage, particularly in areas where unlicensed operators hold informal territorial control.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has previously warned against interference with licensed telecom infrastructure. Such acts carry criminal liability under the Pakistan Telecommunication Re-organization Act.
Whether Wednesday’s attack leads to a formal investigation or prosecution remains unclear.
