The Department of Immigration and Passports has cancelled passports of 97 individuals, including ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, over their alleged involvement in enforced disappearances and killings during the July-August mass uprising.
Of them, passports of 22 people were scrapped for their alleged involvement in enforced disappearances, Azad Majumder, chief adviser’s deputy press secretary, told a press conference at Foreign Service Academy yesterday.
He said passports of 75 others, including Hasina, were revoked for their alleged involvement in violence during the uprising that killed hundreds.
Azad, however, did not disclose the names of 96 others.
He said the Indian authorities are already aware of the matter of revoking the passport of Hasina as they said, “India has issued travel documents for her.”
Azad added that expatriate Bangladeshis who sought passports would also get text messages from the authorities as soon as their passports are ready for delivery.
He mentioned that it was earlier discussed that applications of 1,97,000 machine readable passports are pending and authorities have printed 1,82,745 MRPs. These new MRPs will reach the embassies soon.
The deputy press secretary added that the authorities of the department are taking different steps to make the passport offices free from “brokers”.
He added that the government is planning to appoint some “agents” for helping the service seekers, which will be helpful to break the syndicate of brokers.
On the delay of textbook distribution, Azad said that as of Monday, around 11 crore textbooks out of 40.15 crore had been printed and most of them had already reached schools.
He hoped that students would get all textbooks by the end of this month. He also blamed the delay on non-cooperation of some of the textbook printers and said, “The education ministry will probe the incident.”
Meanwhile, CA’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam said Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman held a meeting with Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus at state guesthouse Jamuna in the evening.
Topics of discussion included electoral reforms, national unity, and reforms in the banking sector. However, the date of the election was not discussed, he added.
Talking about the next election, Shafiqul referred to what the chief adviser said during his address to the nation on December 16.
Prof Yunus said the next polls can be held between the end of 2025 and the first half of 2026 after accomplishing necessary reforms.
Responding to a query about abduction along the Teknaf border, Shafiqul said the government is making significant efforts to improve law and order. According to information from law enforcement agencies, the situation has improved.
About the border killings, he said the previous government remained largely silent on the issue. But the current government has been protesting every such incident.
daily star
