EC scraps national IDs of ex-army chief’s brothers over forgery allegations

The Election Commission has invalidated the national ID cards of Haris Ahmed and Tofayel Ahmed Joseph, brothers of former army chief Aziz Ahmed, over allegations of forgery.

Shariful Alam, the EC’s public relations director, announced that the commission has cancelled the four IDs associated with Haris and Joseph.

“They will no longer be able to access any services tied to those IDs in the country,” he said on Tuesday.

Reports indicate that Haris and Joseph changed their names and their parents’ names on their ID cards. Specifically, Haris adopted the name Mohammad Hasan, while Joseph took the name Tanvir Ahmed Tanzil.

Allegations have surfaced accusing Aziz Ahmed of advising his brothers to make these changes.

Consequently, all four of their IDs have been removed from the EC server.

EC Secretary Shafiul Azim said that they had received a report detailing the fraudulent changes made by Haris and Joseph. “We will take action against anyone involved in this incident,” he said.

In June, former chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal revealed that investigations were underway into similar misconduct by other notable figures, including Haris Chowdhury, political secretary to Khaleda Zia, and relatives of Moslem Uddin, who was implicated in the assassination of Bangabandhu.

“The matter came to light 20-25 years later, prompting the formation of two probe committees,” he said.