Police get city cell SIM card from terror trio

Mateen Hafeez I Times News Network
Mumbai: A cellphone SIM card recovered from the three Lashkar-e-Taiba suspects arrested on Friday may lead them to more revelations in the case, feel antiterrorist squad officials.
The SIM card, having a Mumbai number (starting with 98679), was found along with the timers, detonators, electronic circuits, cartridges and the pistol, officials said. The card was found with Khursheed Gani Lone alias Lala, they added.

The SIM card, officials said, raised several issues. How the trio managed to get a mobile connection within a couple of days of arriving in Mumbai, the name of the person to whom the SIM card was issued, the identity proof that helped Lala get the card and the identity of the agent are few questions with which officials are now grappling.

Lala was nabbed along with Arshad Gulam Badroo and Ramzan Wahab Qazi alias Haji near Cafe Sagar at the Nagpada junction. Officials said they were trailing the trio since Wednesday when they arrived at Nasik and from there to Mumbai.

But it is the SIM card that is now intriguing them, say investigators. “Cellphone service-providers ask for proof of residence before they register a subscriber. Connection is snapped if the address proof is not submitted within 24 hours,’’ an official said. “We are trying to find out who the subscriber,’’ he added.
Service-providers usually ask for the ration card, the driving licence or a copy of the passport.
Investigators will approach the service-provider to give details of calls made and received on the phone. “The records, conversations, SMSes and clippings (if any) will defintely help the investigation. It will also provide information about those with whom the three were in touch in Mumbai or elsewhere,’’ an ATS officer said.

The police have not yet disclosed the contact numbers found on the set.

A police team from Jammu and Kashmir is expected in the city within a day or two to interrogate the three; all three are involved in several terror cases there and Lala is also accused of being involved in a Rs 11.70-lakh heist on a bank in November last year.

Lala is also believed to have played a key role in a bomb blast in Kashmir last year. Investigators say they are depending on help from the cellular service-provider; they expect the firm to provide the entire database of calls and SMSes made and received on the phone.

The three were remanded to police custody till 16 January.

The Times of India, January 8, 2006