MEMBERS of a syndicate were using a house in Chattograms’s Hamzarbagh to make forged national identity cards for Rohingyas. Officials of Chattogram Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism unit said they raided the house in Momenbag Residential Area early in the day and recovered an EC laptop and internet modems, among other devices.
Police and EC officials said the devices were being used to make dubious entries to the NID server. The police official claimed that the laptops and the pen drives had a list containing names of Rohingyas who the law enforcers believe contacted the syndicate members in the past. On September 17, Kotwali police recovered another official laptop of the EC after raiding Joynal’s house in the Port City’s Andarkillah area.
Earlier this month, police and passport officials said some Rohingya refugees were making Bangladeshi passports using forged NID cards with the help of some locals and Rohingya brokers. The Rohingya people were using fake names and addresses while applying for the identification documents.
Recently, a government probe body found that at least 73 suspicious applications were uploaded to the Election Commission database for issuing NID cards. The committee unearthed the information while probing the forged NID card of a Rohingya woman in Chattogram. Several EC staffers were found involved in syndicates providing forged NID cards to Rohingyas in exchange for money.
Nothing illustrates the plight of the Rohingyas better than the fact that they are using their meagre resources to go to any lengths to get fake identity documents. These are not obtained free. Like any other sector, the officials connected with NIDs are not beyond suspicion. There is a corruption business also.
Staying in what is basically a huge no-man’s land type of slum for the last two years without doing anything is beyond the ability of most human beings to bear.
Compounded to the fact that there is no certainty if, or when, they can ever go back to their homeland, and one sees why the Rohingyas are so desperate in doing anything or going to any length, to make themselves productive and economically solvent. We can hardly blame them for trying to go to even illegal and dubious lengths to extend their freedom.
The blame for all of this must ultimately fall on Myanmar. Ever reluctant to even acknowledge that the Rohingyas are their citizens, these desperate and illegal acts of an ethnic group betray the desperation that ordinary Rohingya must feel, after the time they have spent here. The hounding of the Rohingya in Myanmar is the main reason ultimately for all their illegal acts.
