DUSHANBE -- Tajik authorities are mandating the re-registration of all already-purchased subscriber identity module (SIM) cards in an effort to fight terrorism, AsiaPlus.tj reported August 3, quoting Jonibek Dadomatov, chief of the government's agency for regulating communications.
The government at the end of July published a resolution mandating that procedure as well as the standardisation of sales of SIM cards and the need to show a passport when buying a SIM card from now on, Dadomatov said.
The government expects to complete re-registration of existing SIM cards within a year, he said.
Tajik authorities have learned that the Afghan Taliban are using Tajik SIM cards that they bought in Afghanistan near the Tajik border, Mansurjon Umarov, deputy chief of the State National Security Committee (GKNB), told parliament last December.
In Tajikistan in the first half of 2016, police confiscated about 570 illegally sold SIM cards.
