Two Rohingya men held for trying to enlist as Bangladeshi voters

A mobile court on Monday afternoon arrested two Rohingya men with forged Bangladeshi official documents from Pokkhali in Cox’s Bazar Sadar upazila. The duo, Abul Hashim, 70 and Md Ayaz,26 were trying to be Bangladeshi voters with forged documents that also had forged official signatures. Both of them confessed before the court that they had arrived from Myanmar’s Rakhine state and managed the documents in exchange for money, confirmed Md Noman Hossain, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Cox’s Bazar Sadar upazila, who led the mobile court. The two came to Pokkhali Union Parishad Office to be enlisted as voters during the Voter List Update Programme 2017, campaign. Hashim produced documents that said he was a resident of Teknaf’s Hnila union while Ayaz produced documents with an address in Dhesupalnag area under Ramu upazila, said police. The voter registration officials reexamined the documents after being suspicious only to find them to be fake. Later, it was found they had also forged the official signatures on the documents as well. Cox’s Bazar District Election Officer Mozammel Hossain said: “We are investigating to find out the people behind the offence while the two refugees have been sentenced to 15 days imprisonment.”