Dhaka, Nov. 20 -- The government will block all cloned, illegally imported and smuggled mobile phones, Faiz Ahmed Taiyeb, special assistant to the Chief Adviser in charge of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, said on Wednesday.

There will be "no exceptions" in removing such phones from the market, he said in a press release.

He also said that illegal phones are linked to many crimes, including wrong SIM registration and eKYC fraud, bulk SMS scams, mobile financial fraud, online gambling, scamming, patent and royalty violations, tax and customs evasion, and cross-border smuggling from China and India.

These activities also harm the local handset industry, he added.

The official also informed that vari...