SANGAREDDY: A 19-year-old mason working in Gollapalli village of Kondapur mandal was arrested by Assam police on May 14 for allegedly supplying mobile phone connections to cybercriminals, including persons in Pakistan. The arrest, in the wake of the recent Pahalgam terror attack and escalating India-Pakistan tensions, has sparked widespread concern.
The accused, Mofizil Islam, a native of Assam, had been living alone in Gollapalli and working as a daily wage contract labourer.
According to Assam police, Islam earlier worked at a mobile shop in Assam, where he created fake IDs to procure SIM cards. These SIMs were used to register WhatsApp accounts that were then supplied to cybercriminals in Pakistan. The recipients, using Indian numbers, deceived victims into believing the calls originated domestically.
Islam is believed to have acted in association with seven others as part of a larger racket spread across Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana. The gang’s activities came to light during ‘Operation Ghost SIM’, launched by Assam police based on intelligence inputs from military agencies investigating illegal migrants and cross-border cyber networks.
Though Islam was arrested in Telangana, Assam police did not initially disclose the nature of the charges to local authorities. Telangana police reportedly learned of the case details only after a press conference by their counterparts in Assam. Local police have since begun investigating whether others in the region have links to the racket.
Labour contractor Abu Talib, who engaged the services of Islam, said that he did not have any knowledge about his activities. “I came to know about Islam’s role in SIM card racket after his arrest by the Assam police,” said Abu, adding that Islam had worked as a contract labourer in a beer factory for a week along with five others before his arrest.
Anti-national activities on radar
‘Operation Ghost SIM’ was launched after military intelligence traced a fake SIM card racket with links to Pakistan, operating out of India. The gang procured SIMs using fake IDs and sold them to cybercriminals, including in Pakistan, who used Indian numbers on WhatsApp to dupe victims and carry out “anti-national activities”, authorities said.