Fake NID: Perpetrators will not be spared, says EC

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Bangla Tribune Desk
Published : 22:39, Sep 16, 2019 | Updated : 22:42, Sep 16, 2019

Election Commissioner Kabita Khanam speaks to media at her Dhaka office on Oct 17, 2018. FILE PHOTOThe Election Commission has warned that people involved in providing national identity (NID) and smart cards to Rohingyas will not be spared and face action.
“If any election official is found involved in providing national identity (NID) and smart cards to Rohingyas, he or she will be removed,” news agency UNB quoted Election Commissioner Kabita Khanam as saying on on Monday (Sept 16).
Her remarks came hours after a top EC official in Dhaka told the media that they have found the involvement of an employee at Chattogram’s Daboul Mooring Election Office, who “only attempted” to help Rohingya obtain fake NIDs.
Speaking to media after a meeting with the local election officials in Chattogram, Kabita said the EC has changed the passwords of all the upazila and thana election offices across the country and introduced new security features in the system so that no Rohingya can be enlisted as a voter.
She also directed all the registration officers, conveners of special committees and Chattogram divisional commissioner to remain alert in this regard.
According to sources at the EC, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has found that false NID and smart cards were prepared for Rohingyas using an EC laptop which went missing from its Chattogram office.
But the ACC could not confirm whether the laptop was stolen or handed over to someone by election officials.
Photo showing NID number of Rohingya national Nur MohammadA total of 46 Rohingyas have so far been identified who were included in the voter list.
The voter ID cards were prepared in 14 thana election offices in six districts with 74 registration forms.
Meanwhile, the EC has blocked the NID server for further investigation into the matter.
By the time, three members of an NID forgery gang were arrested in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar.
On Sept 1, an alleged Rohingya robber leader who was killed in a reported gunfight with law enforcers in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar had an NID card.
Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas. More than 730,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after the Myanmar military launched a brutal offensive targeting the mainly-Muslim ethnic minority on Aug 25, 2017.

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