CHATTOGRAM, Sept 16 (UNB): Election Commissioner Kabita Khanam on Monday warned that action will be taken if any election official is found involved in providing national identity (NID) and smart cards to Rohingyas.
"If any election official is found involved in providing national identity (NID) and smart cards to Rohingyas, he or she will be removed," she said while talking to reporters after a meeting with local election officials in the city.
Kabita said the Election Commission 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.
A 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 September 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 August 25, 2017.
