The process to reregister all existing SIM cards has begun in Tajikistan.

The government passed a resolution requiring all mobile operators in Tajikistan to reregister all SIM cards already in circulation on April 30 this year and it was published in the state-run newspaper Jumhuriyat late June.

Jonibek Dadomatov, the head of the department for communications regulation at the Communications Service under the Government of Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on August 3 that the resolution provides for regulation of the sale of SIM cards and reregistration of all SIM cards already in circulation.  

All SIM cards should be reregistered during a year, Dadomatov said.

According to data from the communications service agency, 10 million mobile phone subscribers have been registered in the country and 4.9 million of them are active subscribers.

Nearly 570 illegally sold SIM cards have reportedly been confiscated in Tajikistan over the first six months of this year.

Meanwhile, all mobile operators in Tajikistan have informed their customers via their websites that they begin re-registering all existing SIM cards on their networks beginning on November 1.  SIM card owners must bring their passport or other official I.D. documentation and their SIM cards to one of their service centers to register their identity in compliance with a government order.

Fears of terrorism have reportedly prompted new communications laws in Tajikistan.

In December last year, Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) endorsed amendments to the country’s communications law that require mobile carriers to register all SIM cards sold, and reregister those already in circulation.

Speaking at the session, Mansourjon Umarov, first deputy head of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), noted that more than 70 percent of active SIM cards had been sold out without producing identification.

“We have information that Taliban militants deployed in areas bordering Tajikistan are actively using Tajik SIM cards,” Umarov said.

The initiative to reregister SIM cards is not unheard of.  The Diplomat reports that earlier last year, Pakistan began registering SIM cards.  In verifying the identity of the owners of SIM cards, Pakistani officials reportedly hoped to be able to trace cell-users engaged in terrorism and other crimes. Tajik authorities hope for the same.

In late November last year, Tajik lawmakers passed legislation allowing the authorities to block the Internet and telephone system during “counterterrorism operations” in the country.

Experts consider that amendments mandating SIM-card registration and legalizing blocks are direct responses to the last year’s mutiny of former deputy defense minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda.