Gang helping Rohingyas to get NID, passport busted

NEWS DESK

Police on Thursday arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in helping Rohingya people to get birth certificates, national identity cards and passports using fake addresses in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar.

The lawmen also arrested two Rohingya youths.

Detective Branch of Chattogram Metropolitan Police arrested them at the GEC area on early Thursday while they were going to Dhaka to make a passport for one Rohingya individual, said Nihad Adnan Taian, deputy commissioner (DB North) of CMP.

The arrestees are Md Khosru Parvez, 36, hailing from Satkania upazila, Md Taslim, 40, from Naikhyangchari upazila in Bandarban, Md Ismail, 20, from Lohagara upazila and Md Faruk, 27, from Patiya upazila and Rohingya youths Md Jaber, 25 and Razi Alam, 27, said the police.

‘Md Khosru Parvez is the kingpin of the gang who helps Rohingya people to get birth certificates, national identity cards and passports using fake addresses in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar,’ said the police official.

‘We traced the gang after the arrest of one Rohingya Asad Ullah who was trying to leave Bangladesh after getting a Bangladeshi passport.’

Nihad said that Md Khosru Parvez and others were going to Dhaka on Thursday to make a new passport for Rohingya youth Razi Alam and to apply for a visa for another Rohingya youth Md Jaber who had already got a Bangladeshi passport.

‘The syndicate usually charges Tk 3 lakh to 5 lakh from prospective Rohingyas under a package that includes Bangladeshi birth certificate, national identity card and passport,’ the police official said, quoting the arrestees.

The police, however, seized five Bangladeshi passports and one NID card from them. A case was filed against them in this connection.

Earlier on February 2, Chattogram district police arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in helping Rohingya people to get birth certificates, national identity cards and passports using fake addresses in Chattogram.

Previously, the counter terrorism unit of CMP arrested several others, including a former employee of the election commission in Chattogram, for helping Rohingyas to obtain Bangladeshi documents and using fake addresses.

The groups allegedly hacked the server of Office of the Registrar General, Birth and Death Registration, and took control of the ID and passwords of different ward offices of Chattogram City Corporation.