Pakistan suspended mobile phone services nationwide on Thursday for election day, the interior ministry citing the need to “maintain law and order”.
“It has been decided to temporarily suspend the mobile service across the country,” a ministry spokesman said in a statement.
The spokesman said “precious lives have been lost” in recent militant attacks in Pakistan and “security measures are essential to maintain law and order situation and to deal with potential threats”.
AFP journalists in the capital Islamabad could not access mobile internet services as polls opened at 8am local time (3am GMT), while there were also reports of poor access in the southern city of Karachi.
Two blasts near election offices on Wednesday killed at least 30 people in the southwestern province of Balochistan.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blasts in a message on its Telegram channel. Several other groups, including the Islamist Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and separatist Baloch militants oppose the Pakistani state and have also carried out attacks in recent months.
The country is on high alert with tens of thousands of troops and paramilitary soldiers on duty, including at polling stations. Pakistan also said it was closing its borders with Iran and Afghanistan for the day for security purposes.