Peshawar police launched a mobile application to help curb incidents of mobile theft in the city on Tuesday.

The app, available for android phones, will essentially be a verifying mechanism for IMEI numbers. Users will be able to find and search a number while buying a mobile phone, and the app will verify if the phone is being sold legally or is stolen.

The app will contain IMEI numbers of every single mobile device reported as stolen within the jursidcition of the 34 police stations in the city.

Police sources said that when a stolen phone’s IMEI will be entered into the app, it will not only alert buyers to the theft but will also intimate the police about the phone’s presence. Police officials have asked mobile sellers to install the app on their phones to make it fully effective.

The launch of the app comes after a spike in crime in the provincial capital, especially incidents of mobile theft. Apart from a detorioration in enforcement of law and order, the rise in mobile theft has also been attributed to increase in prices of mobile phones due to a higher exchange rate and increased taxes. However, the police hopes that tracking phones being sold will help track stolen devices more easily.