KARACHI (Web Desk) – Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar revealed that call centres in Karachi have turned into hubs of criminal activity and were being used to carry out large-scale international fraud.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi alongside Deputy Director of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) Tariq Nawaz, the minister said the NCCIA, acting on intelligence-based information, conducted a raid on December 18 on an illegal call centre operating in DHA Phase 6.
During the operation, 15 foreign nationals and 19 Pakistani citizens, including two women, were arrested.
The provincial home minister added that preliminary investigations indicate fraud involving transactions worth approximately $60 million.
The looted money was transferred in the form of Bitcoin and US dollars.
During the raid, authorities recovered 37 computers, 40 mobile phones and more than 10,000 SIM cards from the suspects’ possession.
Lanjar said the Sindh government is continuing its crackdown against illegal call centres and will not allow anyone to take the law into their own hands.
He said the role of the NCCIA has become increasingly important, adding that while there are “black sheep” in every institution, action is also being taken against those within institutions found involved in wrongdoing.
The Sindh home minister said the government does not want to harm relations with friendly countries, noting that individuals holding citizenship of two or three countries were found working at the illegal call centre.
He stressed that merely arresting individuals would not resolve the issue and that these cases require deeper investigation.
