ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday said that mobile phone services will be shut on Eid-ul-Azha for four hours from 6-10 am, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to the media, the interior minister said that the mobile service will be shutdown in 13 sensitive areas of the country after intelligence reports suggested danger of terrorist attacks.

“It will not be a countrywide shut down, it will be partial, only in cities and pockets considered sensitive,” he said.

He said that in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa there was chances of terrorist attacks during Eid prayers. Mobile services will also be shut in certain parts of Balochistan.

Terrorists were plotting to target three cities in Punjab, two in southern Sindh and some in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said, but did not reveal their names for security reasons.

The interior minister said that mobile services will start working after Eid prayers.

He regretted the “inconvenience” the suspension of mobile service will cause, particularly to the country's youth.