PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have begun using special SIM cards to trace snatched and stolen vehicles.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Hayatabad Fazal Wahid Khan told Dawn on Saturday that the provincial police had obtained special SIM cards before using them in ordinary cellphone sets to find snatched and stolencars.

`We need the vehicles` registration and chassis numbers to get their entire data, which is used to know if the vehicles being checked have fake registration numbers or are stolen or snatched ones. The process takes a few seconds to complete,` he said.

The DSP said Peshawar police had recovered over 100 stolen and snatched vehicles in the provincial capital by using the special SIM cards.

He said it was the initiative ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani, who had helped police secure 75 special SIM cards.

Mr Fazal said most of the recovered vehicles had been stolen from Islamabad, Lahore and other cities and carried Islamabad registration numbers.

Another official of the cantonment police said most vehicles used in the terrorist activities were either stolen and snatched ones.He said the special SIM cards would help cut the vehicle snatching and theft incidence.

The official said the people, too, could benefit from the special SIM cards to know if their vehicles were stolen.

TWO AUTO-THIEVES HELD: Peshawar police on Saturday arrested two people after their unsuccessful attempt to snatch an autorickshaw.

Police said the arrested men, including Rahim Khan of Dak Lara(Warsak Road) and Munawar Khan of Badbher, had tried in vain to snatch auto-rickshaw from Asfandyar of Mathra.

They said the two were also wanted in other auto-rickshaw theft cases.

MAN SHOT DOWN: A 40-yearold man, Javed, was killed by unidentified gunmen in Chamkani area on Saturday.

Police said the man was shot dead outside his house.

However, his family was reluctant to name anyone in the case.