Rohingyas Getting Passports: Top cops ask SB to stay alert

Top police officials have asked the Special Branch of police to remain alert so that Rohingyas do not get Bangladeshi passports in any way.

The directive was given at a meeting of the police high-ups with the SB on the fourth day of the ongoing Police Week 2020.

According to media reports, dozens of Rohingya refugees were held in Dhaka, Chattogram and elsewhere in the country in recent months. They were either trying to have Bangladeshi passports through brokers or already managed passports.

The Department of Immigration and Passports issues a passport to an individual after having clearance from the SB that the applicant is a Bangladeshi citizen.

Last month, the Rapid Action Battalion picked up three alleged human traffickers and rescued five Rohingyas, including four women, from the capital’s Khilgaon area and seized 115 passport booklets.

A Rab official had said although the brokers brought the young Rohingya women to Dhaka from Cox’s Bazar promising them good jobs in Malaysia, in fact they were brought to be trafficked abroad.

In May last year, detectives detained 23 suspected Rohingyas from the capital’s Khilkhet area. In September, Chattogram police arrested three Rohingya men, carrying three Bangladeshi passports in their names, from the port city’s Kattoli area.

Law enforcers and passport department officials said a group of brokers, who include Rohingyas, had been arranging Bangladeshi passports for the Rohingya refugees. The brokers do the job in exchange for a big amount of money.

This syndicates collect National ID cards, citizenship certificates, birth registration certificates and police verification certificates from the related government offices by using their links and bribing officials. The Rohingyas use fake names in their applications for passports, said the officials.

Yesterday, Inspector General of Police Mohammad Javed Patwary chaired the meeting at the capital’s Rajarbagh Police Lines.

The police chief asked superintendents of police, who head the district Special Branch units, to collect information about banned militant outfits and political leaders and send the information to the SB headquarters in Dhaka. He also asked the SPs to inform the SB high-ups about any important incident.

Citing intensive monitoring, making sketches of criminals and making maps of crime scenes as the reasons for the Police Bureau of Investigation’s success in probing cases, the IGP asked the other police units to follow the PBI’s practice during investigation of cases.

Javed also directed the police officials to hand over the charges of investigation of sensational cases to the Criminal Investigation Department.

MEETING WITH CABINET SECY

In another meeting with Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam at the same venue yesterday, top police officials requested him to take measures to have suggestions from the SPs for the appointment of public prosecutors (PP) to lower courts.

Khandker Golam Faruk, deputy inspector general of Chattogram range, placed the demand at the closed-door meeting, said sources.

On Tuesday, top police officials at a meeting with the home minister alleged that though they provide all case documents to the public prosecutors after completing investigations, the PPs do not provide support to the investigation officers when they seek documents during the trial of cases.

At the meeting, Cumilla SP Syed Nurul Islam demanded scrapping of the “law and order review committee”. The body was formed last month to identify the reasons for the trial of around 35 lakh cases remaining pending with the lower courts and also to make recommendations in this regard.

Police officials thought that the committee was unduly influencing and intervening in the probes of criminal cases.

Chowdhury Abdullah-Al Mamun, additional inspector general of CID, demanded putting the IGP on the Special Selection Board (SSB) committee for police officials.

Senior Secretary Mostafa Kamal Uddin of the home ministry was also present at the meeting, chaired by the IGP.

Sources said the meeting discussed reformation of the police organogram, limiting the duration of the judicial process of criminal cases, and providing interest-free loan to the top police officials for personal vehicles, among other issues.

Cabinet Secretary Anwarul said the government must provide the police officials with promotion opportunities to motive them to work better.

Regarding the other demands, he said he would take measures after looking into those.

The senior home secretary said police should come up with a proposal on its organogram.

He told the meeting that they were working on the police officials’ demands, including promotion.