Centre alerts mobile phone operators in NE

Agartala, Oct 13 (UNI) Union Home Ministry has asked the northeastern(NE) states to keep tabs on cellphone users, warning the service providers for their slack supervision in awarding mobile connections following the serial blasts and movement of international terrorists here.

State home department officials here today informed that as a part of the region's internal security, the Centre had made it clear that the operators should undertake a thorough and rigorous screening of antecedents of the applicants.

''In many incidents, including the recent blasts in Agartala, criminals used mobile phones for carrying out explosions.

It came to the notice of intelligence officials, which compelled the ministry to take up the issue seriously'', officials said.

According to the instruction, the police were advised to collect the records of the SIM cards from the service providers on a frequent interval, apart from maintaining a close vigil on the users.

Besides engineering criminal activities, mobile phones are largely used by the hooligans for eve-teasing in most of the NE states, sources said adding Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Reliance, Airtel, Aircel and Vodafone were operating in the North East.

Meanwhile, the CID has been tracking all outgoing and incoming calls from and to the state prior to the Agartala blasts since September 30.

The authority also sought the detailed list of the callers and receivers, including the STD and ISD calls, from the tele-service providers.

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