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She is wanted in a murder case and police are looking for her.
However, former Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, from a hideout, has applied for a new general e-passport.
She also gave her biometrics to passport employees at the hideout.
The question arises, if the passport employees got a trace of Shirin Sharmin then how come the police did not?
Amid this, Md Mazid Ali, commissioner of the Rangpur Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star today, “She is a fugitive accused in a murder case, and we are conducting drives to arrest her.”
Asked whether police will interrogate the passport officials who took Sharmin’s fingerprints, Mazid, without giving any direct answer, said, “The issue is under investigation.”
The former Awami League MP of Rangpur-6 is an accused in a murder case filed over the death of a gold worker, Muslim Uddin in Rangpur, according to police.
On August 22, the government revoked the diplomatic (red) passports of the members of the now-defunct parliament, including the former prime minister, as well as her advisers and other officials who held such passports, after the fall of the AL regime in a mass uprising on August 5.
On October 3, the former Speaker along with her husband, Syed Ishtiaque Hossain, applied for a normal e-passport at the passport office in Dhaka’s Agargaon.
They were supposed to submit their biometrics on October 10, which they allegedly gave to passport officials from their hideout.
Sources at the passport office alleged that in the application, the former Speaker mentioned that she was ill and “managed special arrangements”.
However, from where Shirin Sharmin has given her biometrics remains a mystery as police sources claimed that she was not found at her Dhanmondi residence, which she mentioned as a present address in the passport application.
The rules of the e-passport application state that even if everything can be done at home, the applicant must go to the concerned passport office for biometrics on the scheduled date. Only sick and physically challenged people will be able to take advantage of this facility from home or hospital through the special service mobile team of the passport office.
When asked about whether an investigation was being conducted against passport officials responsible taking Sharmin’s fingerprints from her hideout, Firoz Sarker, additional secretary (security and immigration wing), of the Security Services Division of the home ministry refused to comment saying, “I am not authorised to comment in this regard.”
The information officer of the ministry can answer this, he said.
Faisal Hasan, senior information officer of the ministry, said he does not have any information in this regard and suggested communicating with the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP).
The Daily Star reached out to Major General Md Nurul Anwar, director general of the DIP, but he did not receive the call.
However, in a press notification, the DIP today stated, “Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury does not have any active passport now. The diplomatic passport issued to her has already been revoked like all other diplomatic passports.”
“Around one and a half months ago, she submitted the diplomatic passport and applied for a general passport. Applying for a new passport is a long process. A passport is only issued to a person after verification and analysis in different phases,” reads the DIP notification.
The notification further added, “The application to get a new general passport in exchange for Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury’s diplomatic passport is still in the primary stage. She did not get a new passport yet.”
This newspaper also tried to communicate with Shirin Sharmin but no one picked up the calls.