PEOPLE of a Joypurhat village on Tuesday collected over 5,000 mobile SIM cards from a wayside pond which were believed to be dumped by a gang of criminals in the darkness of the previous night. It was a hectic event as the news spread to the village people and nearby villages who collected the SIM cards in huge numbers which were mostly destroyed and their numbers were not eligible to be identified. The recovery of the cards immediately raised the question about government control over sensitive national security matters. It is a big question how so many SIM cards could reach the hand of criminal gangs despite the presence of security check ups of users when a person applies for a SIM card . Moreover what caused the criminal gangs to destroy the cards in such huge numbers? We are appalled by the fact that the government has hardly any control over sensitive issues leaving the people’s life vulnerable to high risks including abduction, killing, toll collection and such other anti-social activities. News reports said a boy initially discovered the presence of the cards at the pond and police later came to visit the spot and also recovered several hundred SIM cards along with a sack full documents, similarly destroyed and illegible so that the identity of their users could not be verified. The SIM cards belonged to all major operators like Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink, Airtel and Teletalk. Police and locals believe that criminal groups may have destroyed the cards to avoid phone tracking. The news items also quoted Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission sources as saying that they are clamping down a security sweep to reign in illegal VoIP users and they may have dumped the cards to avoid legal action.As we see, only a few days back, police recovered 53,000 fake national ID cards from a city spot as a criminal gang was doing a brisk business by selling them. Criminals buy such ID cards to hide their identity while committing crimes and it leaves the chance for innocent people to become implicated in crimes to which they have hardly any relation. Even foreign nationals may misuse it to take cover of criminal activities. The news reports said national ID cards could be produced simply at a computer shop leaving people to wonder why the government has left everything so vulnerable to the reach of the criminals while using hundred of crores of taka on the national ID card project. What is the security left to vital organs of the state if it is so easy to counterfeit. News reports were also abundant in the recent past on the availability of Machine Readable Passports in criminal hideouts. Now the national ID cards and SIM cards are on the news.We hold the view that dishonest people in the government are selling national security to mint illegal money and many ruling party leaders and workers are reportedly working in nexus with officials inside the government in one hand and criminal gangs on the other to run the business. This is how the question papers of public examinations are being leaked and sold for money. ID cards or SIM cards are not different either. We ask the government to reinforce national security arrangements at all levels before the nation becomes vulnerable in all fronts.
