Taliban 'call centre' busted in Pakistan; 5 arrested

Islamabad, Aug 22: Perhaps, this can be the last thing one can expect from Pakistan. A call centre run by the terror organisation- Taliban!

According to reports, an illegal telephone gateway exchange was being operated by the Taliban to make ransom calls to families of persons kidnapped by the militant group.

Yesterday, Pakistan's law enforcement agencies arrested five people including one woman in connection with the case.

The raiding team found weapons and explosives from the alleged "call centre", that is located in the Green Town area in Lahore.

A police officer called the exchange an "International Technical Hub" that would show dialling code numbers of Afghanistan and tribal areas of Pakistan, making the receivers believe that the calls were coming from these areas.

An international gateway exchange is a telephone switch that forms the gateway between a national telephone network and one or more other international gateway exchanges, thus providing cross-border connectivity.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members made telephone calls from the location to the families of the kidnap victims.

"This exchange was used to make calls to the families of the persons who were kidnapped by the TTP and other militant organisations in different parts of the country to generate huge sums of money for it's (TTP) activities," a senior police official told a news agency.

Sources said the building that housed the illegal exchange is owned by one Ajmal Shah but during the raid only one person - Hasan Gul - was present in the house.

OneIndia News

(With Agency inputs)