Never mess with your NID card

Be careful! Never intentionally destroy your smart National Identity (NID) Card. Or else you will be jailed or fined up to Tk 40,000.

A Facebook post is being shared and re-shared over and over again in the last few days and it shows a national identity card with its chip cut off by a man who tried to use the chip as a mobile phone SIM card.

Behind this hilarious attempt of the man (as the post says, but could not be verified) there is a danger, because distorting or destroying the NID is a punishable offence according to the Election Commission's Offences and Penalties rules.

The EC rules say: “Any person who intentionally distorts or destroys any information of the National Identity Card shall be liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or with a fine not exceeding forty thousand taka, or, with both.”

The more significant thing is, users of Facebook and other social media platforms should not promote this kind of posts by liking or sharing them as there are so many people who might get inspired to replicate the attempt and in the process commit the offence.

By the way, the man is said to have lodged a complaint with his local election office as he could not use the chip as a SIM card.