After SIMs, Pakistani cell phones making rounds in border areas - Hindustan Times
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After SIMs, Pakistani cell phones making rounds in border areas

Hindustan Times | By, Amritsar
Mar 12, 2015 09:17 AM IST

Even as police and other agencies remain busy dealing with the penetration of Pakistani SIM cards into the Indian Territory, cases of Pakistani handsets being used by smugglers in India have added to their headache.

Even as police and other agencies remain busy dealing with the penetration of Pakistani SIM cards into the Indian Territory, cases of Pakistani handsets being used by smugglers in India have added to their headache.

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Phone

The Amritsar (rural) police, which earlier had seized about 15-20 Pakistani SIM cards allegedly from drug-peddlers, have seized four Pakistani CDMA mobile handsets.

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Police claimed that smugglers and drug-peddlers in the border region had been using Pakistani SIM cards and phones.

The use of Pakistani SIM and handsets is a serious issue, said police, as these can be used up to 25 km into the Indian Territory and cannot be traced or tracked.

Talking to Hindustan Times, senior superintendent of police (SSP) (Amritsar-rural) Jasdeep Singh said, “In the past, we had seized about 15-20 Pakistani SIM cards from the border areas. But, the use of Pakistani handsets in the Indian Territory is a recent phenomenon. We have seized four handsets recently and keeping a tight vigil on its use.”

“The Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) phones are CDMA with in-built SIM cards. These received signals about 20-25 km into the Indian Territory. The problem is that we cannot track Pakistani phones, which are connected to servers in Pakistan, and thus, smugglers take advantage of our limitations,” said the SSP.

Terming this a serious trend, the SSP said, “For using the Pakistani SIM card in Indian, one has to be close to the border region. But the Pakistani CDMA phones can easily be used in Amritsar even.”
Notably, even the Border Security Force (BSF) has been seizing Pakistani SIM cards frequently.


Gifting weapon a new trend: Police

Not only the movement of Pakistani CDMA handsets is an emerging trend, but the Amritsar city police said gifting of a weapon to smugglers was also a part of the trend.

Police claimed this at a recent press conference while announcing seizure of 3 kg heroin, one pistol and cartridges.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    A principal correspondent, Aseem Bassi is the bureau chief at Amritsar. He covers politics, Indo-Pak border, gurdwara politics, crime, border trade and civic issues.

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