KATHMANDU: Nepal Police has expressed concerns about no numbers/ private numbers that appear as identification of the caller while receiving a call. In most of the cases, the number of the caller is displayed, but Nepal Telecom (NTC) also issues private numbers/ no numbers to some of its special customers.

No numbers/private numbers have become a headache for security officials as it has happened that calls from criminals also appear as calls from no/private number.

Kathmandu Chief District Officer Laxmi Dhakal backed the concern raised by the police and said that they cannot let go even minute details when it comes to security.

Police officials raise the no/private number issue in security meetings time and again.

Security officials want a ban on these kinds of numbers or the NTC provide records of the numbers to the police, added Dhakal.

The Metropolitan Police Division (MPD) also complains, “Sometimes our job becomes complicated because of these private numbers/no numbers.

We do not see the numbers and cannot trace culprits.

Also for identified numbers, NTC takes more than 24 hours to give us the details of a particular call.”

It does not only waste our time, but it also gives time for criminals to flee.

Because of this delay, we have to keep on changing our plans in our bid to nab the criminals. NTC should stop issuing private numbers, argued the MPD.

A high ranking official at the NTC however, said, “We have to issue these private numbers to VIP’s. These are issued to the ones who want their numbers to be hidden.”

“These no numbers or private numbers are not only given to VIPs, but some others have also taken them,” a source at the NTC said.

Jivan Ratna Shakya at the Mobile Service Directorate agreed that concerns of the police were justified.

However, NTC never shared records of private numbers with security officials, added Shakya.

“We cannot disclose how many private numbers are issued and the identification of those, but we assure, if this is important for bettering security situation in the country, NTC will always help the police in their investigations,” Shakya added.