Sale of unregistered SIM cards largely prevented in Nangarhar

JALALABAD (Pajhwok: The Telecommunications and Information Technology Department of eastern Nangarhar province says it has extensively prevented the sale and purchase of unregistered SIM cards.

However, local residents say kidnappers, armed robbers and other criminals still use unregistered SIM cards in their crimes, something the government should deal with.

Residents of Jalalabad, the provincial capital, said unregistered SIM cards continued to be sold and purchased overtly and covertly by street vendors and money changers.

Rahmanullah, a resident of Jalalabad city, said the government should prevent the sale of unregistered SIM cards in order to reduce crimes.

He told Pajhwok: “From the Mukhabirat square to the Talashi square, unregistered SIM cards are sold by vendors and money changers. When there is a raid, they hide the unregistered SIM cards and again start selling them when the check up ends. “

Akhtar Gul, a resident of Marko Bazaar in Ghanikhel District, said unregistered SIM cards were sold in Marko Bazar since long.

He says: “When someone is kidnapped, the kidnappers use unregistered SIM card to phone his family and then they break the SIM card. Drug traffickers also use such SIM cards when they communicate with each other. I will say all criminals use these SIM cards.”

However, the Department of Telecommunication and Information Technology said the sale of unregistered SIM cards had been 90 percent prevented in Jalalabad and districts.

The department director, Maulvi Zabihullah Zaki, said: "No one has the right to buy and sell unregistered SIM cards in the markets. So far, we have collected almost 90 percent of these SIM cards from the markets.”

Afghanistan Telecom Regularity Authority (ATRA) head in the east Rahimullah Shinwari said they had started the process of registering unregistered SIM cards at the zone level and every day hundreds of such SIM cards were registered.

He asked people to register their SIM cards and use SIM cards according to the law.

Besides Nangarhar, unregistered SIM cards are being sold secretly and openly in Kabul and other provinces.

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