The National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes (NR3C) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested six people and busted 26 illegal gateway exchanges.
According to an International Calling House (IHC) member, within a few hours of the raid, traffic in the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) pool had increased significantly. FIA Punjab Director Usman Anwar told The Express Tribune that this was the first raid of its kind.
The team recovered 26 GOIP gateway exchanges, laptops , a satellite LNB, a satellite receiver, Wateen internet devices, CISCO switches, routers, a D-Link switch, satellite dishes, and 850 SIMs.
The FIR registered with the NR3C police station states that the illegal gateway exchanges were being operated through satellite bandwidth on the first floor of the Pakistan Turkish Plaza on Multan Road, Lahore. These had been illegally terminating international voice traffic.
The raiding party, supervised by Assistant Director Jameel Ahma Khan Meo, included Rai Nasrullah, Assistant Forensic Expert Ali Fraz Khan Saifi, ASI Mohammad Sohail Shahzad, FC Malik Mohammad Irshad, Mansoor Hassan and Tanvir Abbas. They arrested Attaur Rehman Zamir , Nadeemud Din, Nasir , Shahzad Tariq Pervaiz and Atif Shafique to be present. Attaur Rehman Zamir and Nadeemuddin disclosed that the equipment and gateway exchanges had been provided by Zahid Chaudhary and installed by a person identified as Faisal currently living in Dubai. The FIA officials told The Express Tribune that the principal suspect, leader of a Balochistan-based political party, was still at large. They said they would find him soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 25th, 2014.