Officials at the National Identity Registration Wing (NIDW) have assaulted two journalists for ‘gathering information on public harassment there’.
Published : 19 Aug 2015, 09:12 PM
The incident took place at the Election Commission wing housed in the Islamic Foundation Bhaban at Agargaon on Wednesday morning.
The journalists are Channel 24 Correspondent GM Mostafizul Alam and cameraperson Ripu Ahmad.
The officials also broke their camera, they said.
Election Commissioner Md Shah Nawaz was present at the NIDW director general’s room when the two were assaulted in the office of Abdul Bari, deputy project director of the Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA).
Describing the incident, Alam said they were listening to sufferings of some people at the NIDW on the ground floor of Islamic Foundation Bhaban around 11am.
“An official named Sakhawat asked who gave us the approval. We tried to explain but he started screaming and then before we could understand what the problem was, he dragged Ripu to the sixth floor.
“I followed them to Abdul Bari’s office where at least 15 other officials and staff were present.”
Alam said when they got there Bari kept repeating the question ‘Who gave you permission?’.
He continued that the deputy secretary at one point said, “We will do to them what was done to Probir Sikdar. Hand them to police, take away their mobile phones.”
Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz said the officials who had beaten the journalists would face action. “The EC secretary has been directed.”
“Assault on journalists when they are working is completely intolerable. The chief election commissioner has been notified about this incident,” he told reporters.
The NIDW is tasked with the correction and distribution of duplicates of national ID cards to hundreds of thousands of citizens.
Bangladesh has over 96.2 million voters now. Of them, more than 4.7 million have no ID cards.
Citizens have blamed the EC for harassment as the free service for correcting errors in the cards has been costing both time and money.
The deadline to correct the NID cards and collect a duplicate for free ends this month.
The Commission has admitted to the sufferings and said decentralisation could ease the process.