ISLAMABAD, March 25 (UPI) -- Cellphone users in Pakistan have to register their SIM cards with their fingerprints into a national database in a government effort to prevent terrorism.
Untraceable cellphones are often used to coordinate attacks, such as the December's attack in Peshawar where Taliban militants attacked a school, killing about 150 people -- 134 of them children. The gunmen in the attack used cellphones issued to people with names who had no link to militant groups.
The Pakistani government hopes forcing cellphone users to register will discourage militants to use cellphones for terrorist activities. There are about 130 million cellphone users in Pakistan and about 50 million SIM cards that haven't been registered yet, many of them in rural Pakistan, where it would be difficult to input into the database.
Pakistan has a Computerized National Identity Cards system in place since 2005 that has made SIM card verification easier. The system uses biometrics, including fingerprints, to verify people's identities and people will use that system to register their SIM cards.
Users have to register by April 13 and carriers must comply by April 15.
Other anti-terrorism measures enacted by Pakistan include weapons training for students and teachers for self-defense, raising walls of schools up to 8 feet and adding 2 feet of razor wire and removing a seven-year moratorium on the death penalty.
