CIA police Lahore has arrested eight employees of a Mobile franchise of a cellular company for selling ‘illegal’ SIMs to the suspects involved in the APS School attack in Peshawar.
A police officials said that over 200 SIMs were also recovered which were being misused in different areas of the country.
The arrested staffers have been identified as franchise owner Kashif Zia, Ateequr Rehman, Azam Kazmi, Mubashir Rizwan, Rehman Ali, Zahid and Sajjad.
The officials further added that the SIMs used by the Taliban militants while communicating with their handler in Afghanistan were purchased from a franchise in Hasilpur, Bahawalpur division.
During the investigations, it has also been revealed that the SIMs used by the terrorists in Peshawar school attack were registered in the name of a Lahore-based bakery worker, Rehman Ali, and a woman from Hasilpur and the SIMs were purchased from a general store of two brothers, Sajjad and Zahid, located in Hasilpur.
He said the two brothers were in police custody and confessed their links with the militants.
He said franchise manager Rehman confessed that he was meeting the target assigned to him by the franchise owner. The manager also confessed that he was only issuing double SIMs on one thumb impression and was giving one SIM to the customer and keeping the other for retailers to earn Rs5,000 per day.
Police arrested the suspects on the information of the arrested manager of the franchise.
A senior police official said all the suspects were employees of a leading cellular company franchise and they were issuing SIMs without verification of the customers.
He said the customers even did not know that SIMs were registered in their name.
