Islamabad (29th February 2024): Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Zonal Office Rawalpindi, in collaboration with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing, successfully conducted three raids targeting franchisees of a mobile phone company and an illegal SIM registration vendor in Hasan Abdal, Wah, and Rawalpindi, respectively.

The sale channels were found to be involved in illegal issuance of SIMs. During the raid, 3550 pre-active SIMs, 3 BVS devices, 748 silicon thumbs, 11 thousand digital fingerprints, and a printer were confiscated.

Three individuals were apprehended on the premises by the FIA team, and FIRs have been filed against them. Currently, the FIA is conducting a thorough investigation into the matter.

Prior to these raids, PTA had filed a complaint with the FIA based on information related to the illegal issuance of SIMs by these sales channels. The raids are part of PTA's ongoing efforts to prevent the circumvention of the Multi-Finger Biometric Verification System (MBVS).

 

Malahat Obaid
Director PR