FIA official says in Peshawar SIMs from Afghan service providers are used, while in Karachi SIMs from even Thailand and Singapore are used. PHOTO: FILE
On Tuesday SSP Operation Najeebur Rehman Baghvi announced during a press conference in Malik Saad Shaheed Lines that police had arrested Bilal and Abdullah who were allegedly dealing in the illegal SIMs. Baghvi claimed that police had also recovered 17,895 SIMs from their possession.
“These people [suspects] have been living in Pakistan for a long time and are involved in the business [of illegal Afghan SIMs] for the past two years and they had created an international gateway for phone calls inflicting millions of rupees in losses to the national exchequer,” he claimed, arguing that their boss was living outside of Pakistan.
“Afghan SIMs sold by these people are used in crimes including kidnapping for ransom and extortion as well as other crimes,” Baghvi claimed, adding that the suspects will now be handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for further investigation. He warned that many more groups were engaged in the illicit activity in the city.
FIA official Shahid Ilyas said that in Pehsawar, SIMs from four different Afghan service providers was being used. He added that in Karachi, some people were using SIMs from Thailand and Singapore as well.
“When foreign SIMs are used in crimes you cant get the data of these SIMs which is why it is really difficult to arrest the culprits involved in it,” he explained, saying that they had arrested 97 people in the past few months and that the police and FIA were working together to eliminate the menace.
“It is a real challenge to arrest these people because the real requirement for the business is [mobile] internet which was previously provided by PTCL but these days USBs [dongles] and SIMs had complicated the affair,” the FIA official explained.
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