Eight held for issuing SIMs to APS ‘attackers’
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LAHORE: CIA police on Saturday arrested eight employees of a franchise of a leading cellular company for allegedly selling ‘illegal’ SIMs to the suspects involved in the Peshawar carnage.
A police official told Dawn that the raiding team also recovered from them over 200 SIMs which were being misused in different areas of the country.
The SIMs Taliban had used during communicating with their handler in Afghanistan were purchased from a franchise of Hasilpur tehsil, Bahawalpur.
Read: Militant siege of Peshawar school ends, 141 killed
The arrested staffers have been identified as franchise owner Kashif Zia, Ateequr Rehman, Azam Kazmi, Mubashir Rizwan, Rehman Ali, Zahid and Sajjad.
Another official said the SIMs used by the terrorists in Peshawar school attack were registered in the name of a Lahore-based bakery worker, Rehman Ali, and a woman from Hasilpur. He said the SIMs were purchased from a general store of two brothers -- Sajjad and Zahid -- located in Hasilpur.
Also read| Peshawar attack probe: Four suspects, including woman, arrested in Bahawalpur
He said the two brothers were in police custody and confessed their links with the militants.
He said franchise manager Rehman confessed that he was meeting the target assigned to him by the franchise owner. The manager also confessed that he was only issuing double SIMs on one thumb impression and was giving one SIM to the customer and keeping the other for retailers to earn Rs5,000 per day.
Also read: Woman, mobile franchise dealer freed
Police arrested the suspects on the information of the arrested manager of the franchise.
A senior police official said all the suspects were employees of a leading cellular company franchise and they were issuing SIMs without verification of the customers.
He said the customers even did not know that SIMs were registered in their name.
Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2015
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Comments (34) Closed
Jan 25, 2015 09:00am
and now they will get out on minimum bail and the story starts again......
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Jan 25, 2015 09:21am
Excellent sleuthing work!!
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Jan 25, 2015 09:31am
Military courts..military courts.
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Jan 25, 2015 09:37am
Shame on all these people.should be punished in military courts as terrorist. Ad they were the abetting supporters of those Who did Peshawar massacre and put them behind bard no leniency for such kind of people.
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Jan 25, 2015 09:49am
Good work. Now take them to military courts.
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Jan 25, 2015 09:57am
The small fry of a leading franchise have been arrested. The big fish are swimming merrily. Why is the company's name not mentioned? At least we want to see the name of the company whose profits are tainted in the blood of innocent Pakistanis.
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Jan 25, 2015 10:26am
good job, but need lot of awareness and education, restriction, mechanism. otherwise here ppl sell their parts of body in thousand rupees just to feed their family.
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Jan 25, 2015 10:35am
Great work done and keep it up.
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Jan 25, 2015 11:29am
Good Work! After a long time I can see that someone in our country is working very hard to catch all those animals who killed our innocent kids.
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Jan 25, 2015 11:47am
It's been years that cell phone operators have been lethargic on the issue of collecting and entering user information. Even 10 years ago I remember the sales guys used to just fill nothing over 10% in the forms and tell the buyers they will fill rest when they get back to their office. At the end in the evening they had 200 forms to fill and since their was no control on this they never bothered to fill. Thus even genuine users don't have their data in the system.
After the explosion of number of mobiles due to elimination of incoming call charges and the introduction of prepaid sims the problem reached alarming proportions. The cell operators became even more careless and with prepaid sims they don't even have an iota of non payment of dues so they don't care who is using it and the terrorists found a way to communicate using these sims anonymously.
It's high time to get this info and store it properly. This will help the fight against terror a lot.
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Jan 25, 2015 11:47am
Its weird that they arrested the harmless salesmen. Why don't they pay attention to the elimination of illegal weapons instead of illegal sims??
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Jan 25, 2015 11:56am
CIA police on Saturday arrested eight employees of a franchise of a leading cellular company for allegedly selling ‘illegal’ SIMs to the suspects involved in the Peshawar carnage. Why this franchise be known. why don't we make it public. what are the ulterior motives of CIA and police not to divulge the information.there are so many question that runs through my mind... we have to have a firm resolve to fight terrorism..any firm any agencies should pay the price for being involved
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Jan 25, 2015 12:02pm
Make sure innocent people shouldn't be indicted
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Jan 25, 2015 12:03pm
So now the govt has traced the roots of the militant from the province other than KPK. Can the govt stop blaming pushtuns and afghans for their involvement in that tragic accident.
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Jan 25, 2015 12:08pm
@Rameez Zafar
!) they are not harmless salesman
2) do they not know the rules ? how can they sell sims in other person names ? this is a crime too.
3) selling of illegal sims is a bad as selling or having illegal weapons
It is people with your mindset that has legalized illegal trade....
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Jan 25, 2015 12:34pm
Name the leading cellular company & try culprits in military courts
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Jan 25, 2015 12:38pm
Lets not forget that its not just about this one horrific attack on army school, we have witnessed hundereds of heinus attacks that killed hundereds of innocent people. The killers are the same people who fed and trained to fight our proxy war in our neighbouring countries.
These are the same people who are brainwashed in our maddrassas and then sent back to fight its own people.
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Jan 25, 2015 02:08pm
@Rameez Zafar. It starts from basics, its not just the Sims, its the communication system. Every thing is linked to each other. If they, law enforcement ppl, can mange to break this, major accidents can be averted. An act of successful terrorism activity is based on so many loopholes of system. Terrorists find their way out of these. More strict and comprehensive procedures equals to less options for any wrong doings. My personal opinion is to have an extra control on the procedures of Sim issuance and its tracking
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Jan 25, 2015 03:07pm
These law breakers need to be made an example of by the courts to deter others.
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Jan 25, 2015 03:45pm
they will arrest/ capture everybody but the real culprits.
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Jan 25, 2015 04:28pm
People have the right to know the name of the leading franchise, and we should boycott the franchise.
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Jan 25, 2015 04:30pm
What a travesty! DAWN please be clear which leading cellular company? It must have any name. Secondly, the root causes of the problems be addressed. Arresting low paid employees is not the bone of contention. Employers must be directed with strict rules and regulations when issuing sims to customers. The basic fault lies with the government. The PTA should have put in place a proper mechanism for the cellular companies while selling sim cards. Again, the problem has spiraled out of control. Why it is so that after issues and problems are grown restive, the state wakes up in dealing with the issues? Why not at the start of the problems? Instead of holding PTA and employers accountable, the police are booking underprivileged employees who are just puppets in the hands of their owners. Why owners are giving them huge targets of selling without maintaining their database? These are the roots of the problems and unless these are addressed Pakistan will continue to suffer.
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Jan 25, 2015 04:30pm
WHICH mobile operator was sanctioning these SIM's
staff at which operator or PTA was violating protocol and activating these sims?
tell Pakistan
and by the way check your ID against PTA's service of SIM issue/ID check '668'
by sending ID card number. Do it periodically you will be surprised with the results.
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Jan 25, 2015 04:33pm
The other day, father of my friend went to a Telenor Franchise for thumb verification. the guy at the counter just asked for the cell number under his use and asked him to put his thumb on the machine. After few minutes he asked for Rs.10/= as fee and said it is OK. Neither original or photocopy of CNIC was even demanded or seen by the staffer.
After that he went to Ufone Franchise, where the counterman-cum-cashier guy asked for original CNIC,, he gave him a photocopy of his CNIC,but the Ufone man insisted for Original CNIC and excused to accept the photocopy. All the arguments about his being the genuine user fell on a deaf ear, ultimately he had to return
One wonders,if there are any such instructions for provision of original CNIC or not, it should be clearly publicized and also SMS sent to all users who want to be verified, otherwise, the Ufone people especially told to keep a photocopy of the user's ID so that the people may not suffer unnecessarily. This too should be sent through SMS as well as publicized in Print and electronic media for the general public.
The sleuths who nabbed culprits in the SIM case are saluted.
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Jan 25, 2015 06:01pm
@IBN E ASHFAQUE because it is a franchise. The franchise licenses it's product to individuals who own the outlets. The franchise does not own the business or govern it's day to day operating.
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Jan 25, 2015 06:55pm
Shame on PTA for still not having a system in which a SIM should only work under valid NIC a unique code should be issued on every unique NIC then the SIM should start working
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Jan 25, 2015 06:58pm
They should be sent to gallows! Accessory to Murder!
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Jan 25, 2015 07:04pm
Oh Yar ....SHAHEED kara diye na tu ne ...200 MASOOM BECHEE apne Rs 5000/= kee chukkar mein ....Bas itna susta hai Pakistan ???????....
Pak Rs 5000/= only ..............?????????
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Jan 25, 2015 08:10pm
@nasir : "Tragic Accident"? It was not an "accident"!
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Jan 25, 2015 08:25pm
Military courts
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Jan 25, 2015 08:45pm
and by the way check your ID against PTA's service of SIM issue/ID check '668' by sending ID card number. Do it periodically you will be surprised with the results
? what happens when you do that.
we got a sim card and had to install it in the phone. need a new one, but don't know what this stuff is. prepaid sims doesn't sound like something they sell here. there's prepaid phone cards and you get the pin number and input it for airtime and to keep the phone on. yes, they make you register the phone cards or phones.
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Jan 25, 2015 10:22pm
Put the franchise men in jail and impose some heavy panelty to the cellular company. You can't put the things on right course unless there is accoutability.
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Jan 26, 2015 03:01am
@Pakistani
less talking more practical work to ensure , every human being in Pakistan is safe.those who can not do their jobs must not be there.
Allah bless Pakistan and its all citizens.
m.mirza
montreal canada
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Jan 26, 2015 04:32am
Hang them don't wait for tomorrow.
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