Assam Police arrested a 19-year-old mason working in Gollapalli village of Kondapur Mandal in Telangana on May 14. He is accused of providing mobile SIM cards to many cyber criminals including those from Pakistan. This arrest has been made in the midst of the Pahalgam terror attack and the Indo-Pak tension, which has increased the concern among the people. The name of the accused is Mofizil Islam and he is a resident of Assam. He used to work as a daily wage laborer here living alone.
WhatsApp accounts for cyber criminals with fake SIM
According to Assam Police, Mofizil used to work at a mobile shop in Assam earlier. From there, he learned to make SIM cards with fake identity cards. These SIM cards were used to create WhatsApp accounts. Later, these accounts were sold to cyber criminals of Pakistan who used Indian numbers to confuse people. This made people think that they were getting calls or messages from India, whereas it was being controlled from Pakistan. According to the police, this was a big gang in which a total of eight people from Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana are involved.
‘Operation Ghost SIM’ exposed
This entire gang was exposed under Assam Police’s ‘Operation Ghost SIM’. This operation was conducted on the basis of intelligence received from the army in which illegal immigrants and cross-border cyber networks were being investigated. During this operation, it was found that this gang prepares fake SIM cards and sends them to countries like Pakistan which are used in anti-national activities. Although Mofizil was arrested in Telangana, Assam Police initially did not give complete information about the arrest to the police there. Telangana Police came to know the truth of the case when Assam Police revealed it in a press conference.
Local contractor was not aware
Local labor contractor Abu Talib said that Mofizil had worked as a laborer in a beer factory for a week and there were five more laborers with him. Abu Talib said that he was not aware of any illegal activities of the accused. He too came to know about this SIM card racket only after Mofizil’s arrest. Telangana Police is now trying to find out if there are other people also connected to this network. Under ‘Operation Ghost SIM’, many such cases are being investigated where anti-national activities were being carried out using Indian numbers.
