CPLC launches separate websites to identify unclaimed bodies, stolen cellphones

KARACHI: The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) has launched two websites for identification of unclaimed bodies and verification of snatched or stolen cell phone.

An official of the CPLC said the information about the identification of unclaimed bodies will be available on shanakht.cplc.org.pk, Radio Pakistan reported.

The website has been launched in collaboration with EDHI Foundation, CHIPA Welfare Association, National Database & Registration Authority.

Meanwhile, the snatched and stolen cell phones can be verified by International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers before purchasing second-hand mobiles by visiting mobilephone.cplc.org.pk

The CPLC official said that its database held record of over one million IMEI numbers of stolen and snatched mobile phones.

CPLC database of stolen and snatched mobile phones contains more than one million records of IMEI of cellular phones either snatched or stolen phones during last decade. After verification, all these IMEI numbers have been blocked through concerned authority or put under observation for recovery.

Thousands of recovered mobile phones have so far been returned to the owners after due verification, says mobilephone.cplc.org.pk website.

The website has been developed to facilitate the buyers to verify the IMEI numbers of used mobile phones before purchasing. Buyers can also verify the IMEI numbers through CPLC Helpline 1102.

Chief CPLC Sindh Zubair Habib said in a message said identification of unknown dead bodies always posed a challenge to law-enforcement agencies.

“The usual reasons of non-identification of dead bodies are the non-availability of a proper history of the deceased and decomposition. Such dead bodies are kept in mortuaries for some time in the hopes that the next-of-kin may come looking for their loved ones and claim the bodies for burial after appropriate identification,” he said.

The chief CPLC Sindh said the results in this regard were not encouraging, probably because of the lack of knowledge about the whereabouts of such morgues.

To address this problem, CPLC in collaboration with the Edhi Trust, has taken an initiative through a project called Shanakht, for the identification of such bodies, with the motive that there should be an effective mechanism so that whenever a dead body is found, relatives of the missing persons should be contacted to identify it, he said.

“Under this project, unidentified bodies are identified through the biometric scan technology that utilizes NADRA’s database. A special desk has been established by the CPLC at the Edhi morgue for carrying out the aforesaid task,” he said.

Zubair Habib said under the project, 1150 dead bodies were handed over so far, identified with the help of NADRA and subsequently handed over to the relatives of the deceased. The claimants of the bodies belonged to different parts of the country, he said.