KARACHI, Dec 7: Police have constituted an anti-mobile phone snatching team to be headed by SSP Sanaullah Abbasi. He will be assisted by the ASPs of Saddar, Preedy, Garden and SITE town investigation officer.

The team would suggest measures to control the escalating cell phones snatching.

City police chief Tariq Jamil told Dawn on Tuesday that people in general avoided to inform police and lodge an FIR about snatching or stealing of their cell phones. He said hardly 10 per cent cases of phone snatching incidents were reported as the victims appeared hesitant in informing the police about the incidents.

He said that directives to the 15 Madadgar help line were being issued to note down complaints about mobile phone snatching. He urged the people to report at 15 Madadgar if they did not want an FIR registered.

Mr Jamil said police were in contact with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority about implementing a regulation that could force mobile phone companies to jam stolen sets.

DOCUMENTATION: The Karachi Electronics Dealers Association (KEDA) has decided to launch a campaign to persuade its member shopkeepers to document the sale and purchase of cell phones in future.

KEDA Information Secretary Shahid Ali Sehar told Dawn that a mandatory form would be issued to the member dealers and shopkeepers which would record the sale and purchase of the mobile phone sets.

He said the needed software was in its final stage of preparation which would be launched on the internet soon. The software would be accessible to all dealers and they could verify the used phone set before they purchased it.

PTA: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is in talks with all the four cellular phone operators to thrash out modalities for blocking stolen mobile phones.

"On receipt of a formal letter by the Sindh government about the all too frequent snatching of cell phones at gunpoint, the telecommunications regulator approached the mobile phone companies, asking them to spell out the necessary steps they would have to take to block such devices.

A few cellular operators have written to us, and a response from the remaining ones is awaited," said an official of the PTA. The regional director of the PTA, Rizwan Haidery, told Dawn on Tuesday that the telecommunications regulator was also formulating a policy about the blocking of cell phones snatched at gunpoint.

He added that an advisory issued by the Sindh police was not binding on cell phone operators which were governed by the PTA. "Every cell phone set has an individual number which is known as Individual Mobile Equipment Identification (IMEI) in technical parlance.

All a user need to do is press *#063, and his cell phone would flash IMEI. If a cell phone set is stolen, the subscriber could lodge a complaint with the cell phone operator with copies of the FIR and identity card.

When a call is made by the stolen cell phone set, the operator could not only determine the position of the user but could also block the cell phone set," he explained.

The PTA regional director said the cell phone operators would have to spend money on the acquisition of new technology. "When this system is in place, every call made by a cell phone would be checked against the database containing the numbers of stolen devices.

It must be borne in mind that this checking should be done in the twinkling of an eye so that mobile phone users do not have to wait for long before their call is connected. If it is detected that the call is being made from a stolen mobile, then the cell phone operator could block the number," he explained.

Mr Haidery said that the cell phone operators would have to procure new equipment and software for this system. He said that currently modalities were being finalized and soon an anti-cell phone snatching mechanism would be in place.