Shyadul Islam Talat
bdnews24.com correspondent
Dhaka, Dec 10 (bdnews24.com)--Arabinda Rajkhowa, the recently detained chairman of the Indian insurgent outfit United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), acquired a Bangladeshi passport on fake name and address, detectives say.
They say Rajkhowa posed as Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, citing business as his profession, and provided his photo and addresses of Dhanmondi and Moulvibazaar district.
His passport was issued at Dhaka regional passport under 'very urgent' category on February 5, 2008, the day it was applied for with an urgent fee of Tk 6,000.
The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police sorted out the application form after his arrest and was confirmed after back-check that it was his.
The ULFA chief in the application gave a fake national identity card number.
A top DB official, on condition of anonymity, told bdnews24.com that recommendation has been made to cancel the passport and take action against the officer who had verified the information in his passport application.
Md Rafiqul Islam, deputy director of the passport division under Dhaka regional passport office, said the passport was still effective although there is a provision to cancel a passport within one month if it was proved that information were false or provided mistakenly.
The application states Rajkhowa's parents' name as late Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury and late Sajeda Begum and the permanent address at Pakuria village under Akhailkura union of Moulvibazar district.
bdnews24.com's Moulavibazar correspondent said none by that name lived in the village. Union Parishad chairman Shamim Ahmed said nobody by the name of Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury or his parents ever lived in the village.
Amulya Kumar Chowdhury, officer-in-charge of Moulavibazar Police Station, said no verification report was issued from this police station on that name.
However, the flat and house numbers stated as the contact address at Road 9/A in Dhanmondi were unclear. None was found by that name after a search on several possible houses on that road.
It reads 'by birth' in the citizenship option of the application and his date of birth was stated July 27, 1965.
The application form was attested by Zamirul Islam, a lecturer of the Department of Agricultural Botany at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, where Islam mentioned he knew the ULFA leader for three years.
But no lecturer was found there named Zamirul Islam and the given mobile number was unreachable.
Asked why legal steps were not taken against the passport holder, Abdul Qader, special police superintendent of the passport division, told bdnews24.com, "It's a matter of one year back and I was not on duty then.
"But it will be checked why the fake names and addresses were not detected in verification," he added.
He also said he was not given any recommendation /direction to take measures against that passport.
A senior official of an intelligence agency told bdnews24.com although Rajkhowa took the passport, he could not use that while travelling to other countries.
But no strict step was taken regarding this as cancelling of the passport might catch eyes, the official added.
Earlier, two Indian terrorists Daud Merchant and Zahid Sheikh were arrested with Bangladeshi passports in fake names—Abdur Rahman and Arif Sheikh respectively.
Moreover, there are allegations against the middlemen and some dishonest staffs of the passport office who help issuing passports in disguised names.
The ULFA chief was arrested near the India-Bangladesh border at Dawki in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya along with his wife and their two children, India's Border Security Force recently announced.
His personal bodyguard Raja Bora, the deputy commander-in-chief of the ULFA's military wing Raju Barua and others were also detained altogether, said BSF.
Later they were all handed over to the Assam police, said the Indian border force.
Rajkhowa, Bora and Barua are now being quizzed in police custody after they were produced before a court in Guwahati, Assam, last week.
Indian media, quoting unnamed intelligence sources, had originally reported on December 2 that Rajkhowa and others were picked up in Bangladesh. They also reported that the ULFA leader had later been handed over to India.
ULFA has protested such actions as Bangladesh and India do not have any extradition treaty between them.
New Delhi later announced Rajkhowa was arrested in Meghalaya, while Bangladesh home minister Sahara Khatun categorically denied that Rajkhowa was detained in Bangladesh territory.
bdnews24.com/sit/pks/ec/1152h
