KABUL, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan caretaker government is pushing for SIM card registration to crack down on crimes committed with unregistered SIM cards, the government said on Thursday.
"The cabinet has instructed the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, in cooperation with the National Statistics and Information Office, to prepare a plan based on which the process of registration and biometric of SIM cards will begin gradually," the government said in a statement.
The move came as several traders, medical doctors and local influential people have been kidnapped by criminal gangs since the Taliban's takeover of the country in August 2021.
The former government had passed several regulations during the past years, mandating that SIM cards must be registered with genuine identities, but there are still thousands of existing unregistered users.
Four private and one government-run mobile phone companies provide communication service to about 22 million mobile phone clients and over 5 million internet subscribers across the Asian country, according to official sources. ■