Man arrested with 230 Burmese SIM cards in Ukhiya
Karim is the son of Nurul Alam, who lives in block-A32 of Balukhali Rohingya camp-1 in Ukhiya
Ukhiya police arrested a Rohingya man with 230 Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications SIM cards on Wednesday.
Later on Thursday, the detained man named Md Karim, 30, was sent to Cox's Bazar jail under the special powers act.
Karim is the son of Nurul Alam, who lives in block-A32 of Balukhali Rohingya camp-1 in Ukhiya.
Officer in charge of Ukhiya police station, Abul Monsur, said, "We arrested a man with Burmese SIM cards. After detailed questioning, a case was filed against him under 1974 special act 25-(2) and he was sent to jail."
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Ukhiya police arrested Karim from Kutupalong market. He was trying to sell the Burmese SIM cards in the camps.
Police say the SIM cards were smuggled in from Myanmar to be sold to Rohingyas living in the camps.
Local sources say Rohingya refugees in Ukhiya and Teknaf had been using Bangladeshi SIM cards illegally, and in many cases, these were being used to commit crimes.
The fact that crimes such as drug-trafficking, torture and murder are being carried out in the camps, and also the fact that the Rohingyas are holding protest rallies and are refusing to be repatriated to Myanmar, has become a cause of concern for the government.
All these incidents have had a negative effect across the country. So, the government has taken the decision to increase surveillance and has ordered all mobile service providers to restrict 3G and 4G services in the camps after these incidents.
Hence, the Rohingyas were having trouble trying to contact each other because of the poor mobile network connection. Local people also facing problems because of the Rohingyas.
Now the Rohingyas are using smuggled Myanmar SIM cards instead.
Myanmar SIM cards have a strong network connection here as Ukhiya and Teknaf are close to the Myanmar border.
Many refugees living in the 32 camps are using Myanma Posts and Telecommunications SIM cards illegally, and, in some cases, are using them to commit crimes.