UNB, Dhaka :
Mobile phone operators have allegedly been selling SIM cards to Rohingya people in makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar defying a government ban, posing a potential threat to the ‘country’s internal security’. A UNB correspondent while visiting Kutupalong camp found some Rohingya people using cellphones with local SIMs. Sikandar, 22, a Rohingya Muslim who resides in Balukhali camp No. 1, has recently purchased a Bangladeshi SIM card from Kutupalong Bazar without any valid documents. Similarly, another Rohingya man, Jane Alam, 32, who had been traveling Bangladesh frequently for the last five years without passport or any valid document, has purchased a SIM card using the NID card of a Bangladeshi citizen familiar to him. A good number of Rohingyas like Sikandar and Alam have somehow managed Bangladeshi SIM cards and these forcibly displaced people can easily get involved in smuggling and terrorist activities using the communication facility.
The government has recently imposed a ban on selling SIM cards to Rhoingyas, who have fled to Bangladesh to avoid persecution carried out by Myanmar military forces
Mobile phone operators have allegedly been selling SIM cards to Rohingya people in makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar defying a government ban, posing a potential threat to the ‘country’s internal security’. A UNB correspondent while visiting Kutupalong camp found some Rohingya people using cellphones with local SIMs. Sikandar, 22, a Rohingya Muslim who resides in Balukhali camp No. 1, has recently purchased a Bangladeshi SIM card from Kutupalong Bazar without any valid documents. Similarly, another Rohingya man, Jane Alam, 32, who had been traveling Bangladesh frequently for the last five years without passport or any valid document, has purchased a SIM card using the NID card of a Bangladeshi citizen familiar to him. A good number of Rohingyas like Sikandar and Alam have somehow managed Bangladeshi SIM cards and these forcibly displaced people can easily get involved in smuggling and terrorist activities using the communication facility.
The government has recently imposed a ban on selling SIM cards to Rhoingyas, who have fled to Bangladesh to avoid persecution carried out by Myanmar military forces
in Rakhine state. At a meeting at BTRC office on September 23, State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim said selling SIM cards to Rhingyas is a punishable offence and if any operator is found selling SIM cards to the displaced Myanmar ethnic minority, stern action will be taken against that operator. “I’ll take the decision after consulting the Prime Minister whether the Rohingyas who’ve completed their biometric registration can purchase Bangladeshi SIM cards or not,” Tarana told UNB.
