Bangladesh: Detentions over giving NID card to Rohingya

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Bangladeshi police on Sunday have detained four Election Commission (EC) officials in connection with providing National Identity (NID) cards to Rohingya people who are currently taking shelter in Cox’s Bazar.

The counter terrorism unit of Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) detained the four EC officials, said deputy commissioner of the unit, reported local daily The Daily Star.

They were detained in a case filed over providing NID cards to displaced Rohingya people. The detainees are data entry operators in Chattogram EC office, the CMP official confirmed.

“They were detained by Chattogram’s EC office for interrogation to find out whether they have had any involvement with NID card forgery for Rohingya,” the report added.

Law enforcement agency on Sept. 17 arrested an official of Chattogram EC with official laptop with which he was allegedly manipulating NID for Rohingya. Later, police filed a case against five people, including the EC official.

After the arrest, the government formed a probe body to investigate further on it to find who were behind in providing NID and Bangladeshi passport to the forced displaced Myanmar nationals (Rohingya).

Later, the probe body surprisingly found over 70 suspicious applications were uploaded in the EC database to get NID illegally.

The issue first came to light after police arrested three Rohingya refugees with Bangladeshi passports on Sept. 7.

A police official on Sept. 7 told the Anadolu Agency that the refugees were trying to move to another country using Bangladeshi passports.

After this arrest, the government formed a probe body and found a big gang which was manipulating NID cards and included Rohingya refugees in the voter list.

Further investigation was on. Meanwhile, the EC has blocked the NID server for further investigation into the matter.