KARACHI, Oct 3: In what appears to be an attempt to curb the rising trend of cellphone snatching and its associated crimes, the interior ministry has proposed to include cellphone snatching/theft in the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

Sources in the interior ministry told Dawn that this emerged in a meeting held in connection with the sharing of information of cellular phone subscribers with law-enforcement agencies and provision of calling line identification restriction (CLIR) last month.

The meeting was chaired by the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik.

Sources said the meeting decided that amendments should be made to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 to include the crime and use of stolen/snatched mobiles.

Explaining the decision made by the interior ministry, sources said that besides the crime of snatching or stealing of cellphones, a suspect found using such (snatched or stolen) sets would be treated according to the ATA.

For each stolen/snatched cellular phone, an FIR should be lodged with the police station concerned, the meeting maintained.

However, though FIRs are being registered for cellphone related crimes, practically, when a complainant tries to lodge an FIR for cellphone snatching, the duty officer at the police station tries his best to convince the complainant to report it as ‘missing’ instead of snatched.

Sources in the interior ministry told Dawn that the proposal has been made to avert the widespread use of cellphones in all sorts of crimes, starting from street crimes to major acts of terrorism.

The Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 was brought into force for the prevention of terrorism, sectarian violence and for the speedy trial of heinous offences.

The proposal would be sent to the federal law ministry for the necessary legal formalities which are a prerequisite for making amendments in the ATA.

During the meeting the adviser to the prime minister stressed that any information collected by one agency must be shared with all concerned, adding that coordination among law enforcement agencies should be improved and for that, a system should be put in place.

In Karachi alone, a substantial number of citizens have lost their lives in cellphone snatchings. Similarly, the stolen and snatched cellphones still enjoy a good resale market, despite all the checks put in place for the prevention of this trade.

At present, if a person sells his or her cellphone, the purchaser is supposed to take a copy of the seller’s computerised national identity card.

Only recently, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has blocked all unregistered SIMs, which have gained widespread use in the commission of crimes.

However, the prevalent trade practices still have the potential for the issuance of undocumented SIMs.

The meeting also concluded that the users of mobile phones must give an affidavit that they would not use or allow anybody to use their mobile phone for terrorist activities.

The meeting also decided that in case of obnoxious SMS messages, the company (service provider) should be penalized for not devising a method to stop such messages.

However, at present almost all the service providers don’t entertain such complaints when customers approach them about these messages.