NATION | Friday, February 5, 2010 | Email | Print | 
No SIMple solution to J&K imbroglio
Mohit Kandhari | Jammu
More than 12 SIM cards have been recovered from terrorists killed by security forces in the past 24 hours in Jammu region. This has once again exposed the loopholes in verification by various mobile service providers.
Before lifting the ban on use of pre-paid mobile phones last month, the Centre had claimed to have introduced stringent norms but it appears that none of the service providers in the State are paying attention.
A police spokesman in Jammu said, “More than a dozen SIM cards of different service providers have been seized by the security forces in Poonch and Kishtwar districts in separate encounters from the custody of slain terrorists.”
Militants were using these SIM cards to stay in touch with their handlers and take directions from them, dodging security forces by changing them frequently.
The spokesman said eight SIM cards had been recovered from the custody of Jaish-e- Mohammad militant commander Parbat Shakari, alias Tippu, killed in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch on Wednesday. The ultra had managed to escape notice in the area with the help of a fake identity card issued by the zonal education officer in Mendhar.
Security forces suspect the slain ultra might have used the same identity card to get some of these SIM cards. Nevertheless, the fact remains that procuring eight SIM cards on a single identity is a difficult proposition, if verification is thorough.
SSP Poonch Manmohan Singh said the police were investigating whether fake State Government stamps were being used to prepare similar identity cards or someone else was faking them.
In a separate encounter in Kishtwar district, security forces had recovered four SIM cards from Lashkar-e-Toiba militants Abu Maz and Saiffullah on Wednesday while one SIM card was found at the encounter site on Thursday in Kishtwar, where three militants of Harkat-ul Jehad Islami were killed.
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