Bangladesh blocks 1.5 million mobile numbers

Officials in Bangladesh have blocked about 1.5 million mobile phone numbers and have introduced tighter standards for selling SIM cards following an increase in mobile crimes.

The new laws dictate that children under 18 will be banned from buying SIMs and adults must show their national identity cards when registering a new number.

“Police have disconnected over 200,000 phones which were being used in cases of extortion,” home secretary Abdus Sobhan Shikda has said.

Currently mobiles and SIM cards can be bought without identification, which the Government has said has led to an increase in crime.