SARGODHA, Oct 10: Sajid Shahid police on Wednesday seized 10,000 copies of computerised national identity cards some employees of a cellular company had used to illegally issue SIMs.

During the course of investigation the six employees disclosed that they had activated more than 250,000 SIMs against fake ID cards during the last six months.

The police obtained their physical remand from the Anti-Terrorism Court. The police said they sprang into action after a senior government officer was issued a SIM on a fake ID card.

The gang, they said, had been active for the last two years with the blessings of some officials of cellular companies. They would charge between Rs3,000 and Rs15,000 to issue a SIM, they said, adding the police would also interrogate Nadra officials.

A member of the investigation team claimed that local trader associations had intervened to ‘rescue’ some franchisers of cell phone companies and the police had released some of them.

SSP Dr Rizwan told this correspondent the police were making an impartial inquiry and would not succumb to any pressure.

He urged the subscribers of various cellular companies to get confirmed how much SIMs had been activated against their ID cards and report to the police in case of anomalies.

CONDEMNATION: Director Public Relations and Publications Prof Dr Husain Ahmed Piracha on Wednesday condemned the murder attempt on Malala Yousafzai.