Three illegal gateway exchanges busted in Mansehra

MANSEHRA: Three illegal gateway exchanges have been busted during joint raids conducted by the officials of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Mansehra, ARY News reported on Friday.

The raids were conducted separately in Haroonabad and College Doraha neighbourhoods of Mansehra, said PTA spokesperson. Three illegal gateway exchanges were busted in the raids while the officials seized four mobile handsets, three laptops, two modems and a broadband device.

A man was also held by the officials over charges of running the illegal gateway exchange, the spokesperson added.

Earlier in October, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials had arrested three people including an owner of a mobile operator franchise for stealing sensitive data of citizens from the official database of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) in Gujranwala.

Read: Two former Nadra high-ups booked for ‘stealing’ sensitive data

The arrests were made during a raid carried out by the agency’s team at a mobile phone franchise located in Rahwali area of the city where three suspected persons were taken into custody.

FIA deputy director confirmed that the franchise owner is among the detainees over their alleged involvement in confidential data of citizens from NADRA’s system.

The official revealed that the suspects have activated mobile sims by using the stolen data which they copied to silicon from the fingerprint software for the citizens.

The team which raided at the mobile franchise has also recovered 10,000 sim cards, eight bio-metric machines and 10 laptops from their possession, said the agency’s deputy director.

A case has been registered against the arrested persons over stealing the confidential data of citizens from the NADRA’s database for its usage in illegal purposes.