Though the actual reasons of the recent attacks on two cellular franchises in Karachi have yet to be ascertained, industry sources and real-time experiences are suggesting that the franchises are paying for their massive violations of the security paradigm. It has been learnt that almost all the franchises of the mobile phone companies in the city are involved in huge violations of personal and social security norms that include issuance of SIM (subscriber identity module) cards without the required documents – even the mandatory requirement of a photocopy of the computerised national identity card (CNIC); illegal porting out of mobile numbers; issuance of duplicate SIM cards without the required SIM jackets; leaking out call records to people; re-issuance of blocked SIMs in the name of original subscribers, etc.
One of the customer services agents at a local franchise located at the Shahrah-e-Faisal said that he was given life threats for not issuing a duplicate SIM card without being provided with a SIM jacket, call details and a copy of the CNIC.
“I tried my best not to surrender to the threats of the criminals who wanted to have somebody else’s SIM, but since I am not provided with sufficient security and these types of threats are a routine matter, my family didn’t let me continue my job,” he added.
The biggest violation they are involved in is to port out mobile numbers illegally, and nobody’s number is safe.
Sources said that once the Darakhshan superintendent of police (SP) faced this issue when his Mobilink number was illegally ported out to Zong, putting him in a dilemma because his number was activated on two connections at the same time.
“The SP was not able to receive calls on his original number, but could dial, so one can imagine how powerful this practice of illegal porting out is,” added the sources. I, too, faced this problem recently when my number 0322-6197275 was reissued to someone else, despite the fact that I had got this number blocked some six months ago. In another case, a person wanted to have call details of some numbers issued, claiming that his brother was kidnapped and he was receiving calls for ransom from the numbers he wanted to have call details of, but he did not have a copy of the FIR that could serve as proof of the kidnapping.
Most of the time, the franchise staffs carry out these illegal activities either on being provided a personal reference or for money. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is equally responsible for these illegal practises by the franchises. “It is a very common complaint that 789, which is the SIM activation service of the PTA, doesn’t work. After registration of their SIMs with 789, some 90 percent subscribers find that their SIMs are still in the names of somebody else,” the sources added.
Considering these massive violations, said the sources, it is likely that the attacks on the franchises of Telenor and Mobilink could be motivated by personal enmity, counter assault or forcing their staffs to engage in illegal practises.
Mobilink spokesman Umer Manzoor said that the security agencies are investigating the matter and they are cooperating with them.
Telenor Corporate Communications Manager Affan Haider said that nothing has been ascertained yet as the prime reason of the attack.
It is pertinent to mention here that on December 23, two armed men entered a Telenor franchise and killed two people, while two were injured.
On January 3, some unidentified men hurled a hand grenade at an outlet of Mobilink in Nazimabad that left four people wounded.
Reportedly, the reason of the attack in the latter case was personal enmity with the owner of the franchise.
