LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested six suspects, including four owners of a cellular company’s franchise in Toba Tek Singh, allegedly involved in illegal sale of SIM cards of different networks through fake silicon thumb impressions.

FIA Assistant Director and in-charge CCRC (Faisalabad region) Rizwan Arshad told Dawn the suspects had been arrested on a tip-off from the other suspects in this scam.

In the first raid, Mr Arshad said Naveed Khan and Touqeer Ijaz were arrested from Bhakkar and over 7,000 fake silicon thumbs, 8,000 SIM cards and 15 BVS (biometric verification system) devices were recovered from them.

In the second raid, Haroon Ashfaq, Muhammad Suleman, Muhammad Faheem and Umair Ashfaq were arrested from Toba Tek Singh. They are the owners of a cellular company franchise. Some 1,600 silicon thumbs, 3,000 SIMs and 30 BVS devices were recovered from them. The FIA official said the suspects were involved in illegal activation of SIMs through fake silicon thumbs.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2021