The Hindu : Cell phone signals from across the border cause concern

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 03, 2003

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Other States - Jammu & Kashmir

Cell phone signals from across the border cause concern

By Luv Puri

Ploura (Jammu) Dec. 2. In a disturbing trend, the signals of the Pakistan cellular service providers, which were earlier picked up on mobile phones near the border areas, are now being picked up even inside and near the top security installations of Jammu and Kashmir.

On Monday night and even this morning, the signals of the Pakistan cellular companies — PKU Phone and PKO1 — were received on the cell phones inside the premises of the highly-guarded BSF headquarters situated at Ploura three km from the city. Similar signals were also received near the Jammu Cantonment, also known as the headquarters of Tiger Division, situated in the heart of the city. The reception of these signals near the top security installations, Intelligence sources say, may have dangerous repercussions. This means that any terrorist or informer possessing a SIM card of a Pakistani cellular company and standing inside or near the sensitive places can use the mobile phone for communicating with people on the other side of the border.

The Inspector-General (Jammu frontier), BSF, Dilip Trividi, who was informed about it, said, "The signals from across are coming on the mobile sets. But we cannot do anything about it as it is the job of other authorities to jam these signals right at the borders." The cellular service was given the official "go-ahead" in the State only three months ago after it was cleared by the Home and Defence Ministries. Due to security reasons, a number of stipulations were imposed before the services were started. For instance, the cellular service would not be available in the areas located at a distance of 10 km from the International Border and the Line of Control. Jammers were installed in these areas to block any communication. The mobile services were provided to a limited number of customers after completing several procedural formalities.

Intelligence sources told The Hindu that in the recent past communication equipment had been installed on the Pakistan side close to the border at heights particularly along the LOC in Jammu region and this was the reason why the jammers had failed to intercept the signals.

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