Islamabad: Suspending mobile phone services in sensitive areas of Pakistan during the Eid has averted many terrorism attempts, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said.
Malik said the government had concrete evidence about the presence of the Taliban in Karachi and action was being taken against them. He said it was also known that Maulana Fazlullah and Maulvi Faqir were operating from the Kunar province of Afghanistan, reports The News.
"It would not have been possible for them to carry out attacks on this side of the border, kill our people and take back their own injured without active foreign support," Malik said.
According to Malik, the government had definite information about a conspiracy hatched to destabilise the country but the designs of the enemies were foiled through effective coordination among the intelligence and law enforcing agencies.
Malik also clarified that the government had no intention of blocking all unregistered SIM cards immediately as it would cause inconvenience to users and also affect revenue. He said a meeting of all the stakeholders had been convened next week to firm up the strategy on how to deal with the issue of SIM cards issued against fake identity cards.
Malik proposed that SIM cards should be verified with thumb impressions of the applicants through the NADRA database.
He added that the issue of SIM cards would be resolved keeping in view foreign investment and interests of the cellular operators. He, however, vowed that a mechanism would be devised to ensure that mobile phones were not used as a tool for terrorist activities.
ANI
