Stolen mobiles being smuggled to Afghanistan

KARACHI - The ratio of snatched mobile phones buying at major mobile markets has been found remain static despite claims of making effective measures by the police and the associations of different mobile markets, The Nation learnt on Tuesday.
The Star Market shopkeepers denied having being involved in buying of snatched mobile phones instead of found them guilty of not verifying mobile phones from CPLC at the time of buying, and their valid excuse was that they always find CPLC’s number busy as CPLC only have one landline number with four lines.
One of the shopkeepers told The Nation that the snatched mobiles are still being bought by the shopkeepers because people do not report to CPLC or police, however the locked mobiles are now sold outside the country. He further told that if the shopkeepers refuse to buy such mobiles they will have their share in reducing the ratio, moreover what they usually do is to keep collecting such mobiles and sell them to Iranian or Afghani people at a suitable time.
The people who took up this business have strong links with the shopkeepers who also have mechanics trained in unlocking mobiles. While the blocked mobiles have been smuggled to Malakand and Afghanistan where those mobiles have better sale value than Pakistan.
One illusion the customer always succumbs to is that the packing of a mobile phone guarantees it being genuine, while the reality is that there are people who make the packing of any sort of mobile at just Rs35-40. Thus, there is no guarantee that a mobile with complete packing is genuine.
The chairman Mobiles Committee of the Association, Saeed Qureshi, told The Nation that through effective measures of the association, CPLC, and the police, the ratio of buying snatched mobile phones has been decreased a lot. Only one or two mobile sets are found sold a day which is comparatively less than the previous year when the ratio of such buying was 10 to 15 mobile sets per day.
The chairman Law and Order Committee of the Association, Mushtaq Sukkurwala, while talking to The Nation said that Banaras and Lyari were the areas where most of the snatched mobiles had been sold, while here at the central mobile market there is not much of this business had been noticed which was a good sign.