Around 10,000 NIDs, election officials’ seals recovered in Narayanganj

Nearly 10,000 National Identity (NID) cards of Gazipur City Corporation residents and important materials including seals of election officials have been recovered from Narayanganj.

The items were found abandoned on Sunday evening in front of the Fatullah Cricket Stadium on the Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road. Narayanganj Additional Election Officer Rakibuzzaman confirmed the matter.

Eyewitness Nazmul Hasan Babu said: “A sawmill owned by me is under construction in the stadium area. For several days, I had been campaigning to prevent people from dumping garbage there. On Sunday evening, some people came in a white microbus and dumped several sacks at the spot. As they threw away clean sacks instead of garbage, we became suspicious. When a few of us opened the sacks, we found NID cards inside. Later, we informed the police.”

Election Officer Rakibuzzaman said the recovered NID cards belong to residents of Gazipur Sadar area. “These are not from our office here. Initially, it is assumed that the NIDs are old and abandoned, and they are not smart cards. However, these should not have been in a garbage heap. How they ended up in Narayanganj from Gazipur is being investigated. All the recovered NID cards are now kept at the Narayanganj District Election Commission office.”

He added that authorities often move NID cards from one place to another through contractors. “But how these ended up in the garbage heap is a matter that needs to be investigated.”

Fatullah model police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Shariful Islam said: “After receiving information from locals, we went to the spot and informed the district election officer. Later, officials from the election office identified nearly 10,000 NID cards of Gazipur City Corporation residents, along with important materials including seals of election officials. A general diary (GD) was filed at the police station, and the recovered NID cards were handed over to the election officials. Efforts are underway to identify who dumped them.”

When asked about the recovery of  NID cards in Narayanganj, Gazipur District Election Officer AHM Kamrul Hasan said: “I am currently in an urgent meeting. I will look into the matter and provide details later.”