It has been discovered that iPhones are also being resold after reset, just like other mobile phones that are either stolen or snatched in Pakistan as many of these iPhones have been recovered from citizens returning to the country after purchasing them from Dubai.
“The South zone police cross-checked the IMEI numbers of 10,237 distinct mobile phones seized or stolen in Karachi within the system between November 2022 and July 2023,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) South Irfan Baloch was quoted as saying by the Geo News.
The IMEI numbers of 1,230 instances in the South area led to 423 recovered mobile phones, and the IMEI numbers of 1,978 cases in the City district led to 345 recovered and 989 traced mobile phones.
In the Keamari district, 1,452 mobile phones’ IMEI numbers were scanned, and 377 of those were recovered and 726 were tracked, according to Baloch. Furthermore, he emphasized that there was strong evidence that the handsets seized or stolen in Karachi were being sold in Dubai and Afghanistan.
At least 22 mobile phones, according to the DIG, were smuggled through Balochistan into Afghanistan, where they were sold in local markets and seized as a result. These phones were equipped with Pakistani mobile SIMs upon reaching Quetta, leading to their identification.
Furthermore, DIG South Baloch disclosed that his team had recovered several stolen iPhones from Karachi, which underwent sophisticated processes to bypass iCloud passcodes and were reset before being sold in the Dubai market.
