Aziz recommended changing address for fake NID of brother

Former army chief general Aziz Ahmed’s brother Tofael Ahmed Josef got his NID in the name of Tanveer Ahmed Tanzil concealing his identity in 2014.

Josef changed the address of the NID five years later. The then army chief general Aziz Ahmed made the recommendation of that change.

Election commission (EC) officials said a person can change voting constituencies by changing addresses provided in the NID.

For this, the person should go to the relevant thana office of the EC and submit a written application and relevant documents.

Sources said Josef showed a holding number of the city's Tejkunipara as his address while availing the NID as Tanzil. He submitted a written application in 2019 to change his address, providing a house in Dhaka Cantonment as his address.

He reasoned that the new address in Cantonment is his address and he has been living there for five years. Later his address was changed, which still remains in effect.

The application Josef submitted mentioned the referee as ‘General Aziz Ahmed, CAS, AHQ’. Army Headquarters is abbreviated as AHQ.

EC officials said any work is fast-tracked if an influential person makes a recommendation. The application is kept with the names of the referees' written for future convenience. Josef’s application has also been kept.

An EC source said there are even doubts about if the application made by Josef was correct. The application was submitted at a thana office of EC but it is not clear in the application which thana he had applied from. The application mentions one person's name as an identifier but does not mention his address and NID number. However, an official of the EC’s NID wing recommended for 'necessary action as per rules' taken in this regard.

Aziz’s two brothers Haris Ahmed and Josef collected NIDs changing the names of their own and parents’. Josef took two NIDs, one in the name of Tanvir Ahmed Tanzil while the other in his real name. Haris took the NID in the name of Mohammad Hasan. Haris changed his picture in this NID taken in 2019. The then army chief Aziz also made recommendations for changing the picture of his brother. Prothom Alo published a report about this in May last. Aziz had denied making the recommendation while speaking to Prothom Alo at that time.

According to the law, providing fake information for NID, making multiple NIDs or abetting in NID forgery are punishable acts. Prothom Alo and several other news media ran reports on NID forgery by Aziz’s two brothers in 2021 and this year. Later on 10 June, the EC formed a probe committee over NID forgery of two brothers.

Election commissioner Md Ahsan Habib Khan told Prothom Alo that the probe committee of the EC is working to investigate the allegation of NID forgery by two brothers of the former army chief. The commission would take legal action if they are found guilty.

In many government documents including their mother’s application for commuting Josef’s sentence, the names of their parents had been provided as Abdul Wadud and Renuja Begum. But the NID that Josef got in the name of Tanzil recorded the father’s name as Suleman Sarker and mother’s name as Fatema Begum.

Tofael Ahmed Josef was sentenced to death for killing a businessman named Mostafizur Rahman in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur in 1996. Later the Appellate Division commuted the death sentence to life in prison. Josef received president’s clemency in 2018 and came out of jail.

Aziz Ahmed was chief of army staff between 25 June in 2018 and 23 June in 2021. The United States has recently imposed sanctions on him for his alleged involvement with corruption, making him and his family members ineligible to enter that country.

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print and online editions, has been rewritten in English by Galib Ashraf