Afghanistan goes for biometric SIM registration to fight crime

The growing wave of crimes committed using mobile phones has pushed the government in Afghanistan to consider the registration and identification of SIM cards using biometrics, reports Bakhtar News Agency.

According to the report, the move by the Taliban government has been prompted by recent developments that many business persons, professionals such as doctors as well as other wealthy and influential individuals, have been kidnapped by criminal gangs using phones with unidentified SIMs.

Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua quotes a section of a statement from the Afghan government translated to read: “The cabinet has instructed the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, in cooperation with the National Statistics and Information Office, to prepare a plan based on which the process of registration and biometric of SIM cards will begin gradually.”

The former government toppled by the Taliban had given instructions in the past for the registration of SIM cards, including with biometrics, but thousands of unregistered SIMs remain in use in the country, reportedly with devastating consequences.

Several countries around the world require one form of biometrics or another for the identification of SIM cards by telephone users.

Article Topics

Afghanistan  |  biometric database  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  identity verification  |  regulation  |  SIM card registration  |  smartphones