Rab detains travel agency owner for birth certificate forgery

The Rapid Action Battalion on Monday detained Azizia Traveling International owner Atikur Rahman conducting a drive in his luxurious residence in Dhaka's Basabo area.

Atikur allegedly trafficked Rohingya people providing them with Bangladeshi birth registration certificates and passports.

The Rab confiscated a huge number of illegal passports, fake driving licenses and cash during the drive in his flat in Navana Tower.

The team also raided the travel agency office and confiscated documents that established proof of money laundering of Tk60 lakh to Singapore and Australia. 

The documents also provide information that he has $4,27,000 in an Australian bank account and $60,000 in a Singaporean bank account. 

Atiqur also has Tk70 lakh in an account in Standard Chartered Bank in Bangladesh. There has also information that Tk70 lakh was transferred from his Islami Bank account on Monday.

Recently, a vested cycle was providing Rohingyas with birth registration certificates and passports under the guise of the travel agency, said Superintendent of Police Mahiuddin Farooqi, commander at Rab 2, Crime Prevention Company 3. 

In this connection, Rab 2 arrested six people of this cycle conducting a drive on September 11 in Narayanganj. Later, based on their information, Atikur was identified. 

Rab confiscated a huge number seals used on birth registration certificates of different city corporations and union parishads conducting drives in three cyber cafes located beside the regional passport office in Jalkuri area of the district. They also seized hard copies and hard disks of certificates.

The agency used to provide Rohingyas with 250 passports and visas every month and sent them to Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, said Rab sources. 

Atikqur hailed from Cox's Bazar and many agents from his travel agency worked in Rohingya camps. They targeted Rohingyas who are interested in going abroad. Using false information, Rohingyas were provided with birth registration certificate in exchange for huge amount of money. Later, passports were made using those birth registration certificates.

The Rab sources said Atiqur formed a syndicate comprises city corporation officials and union parishads staff of different district in the country who provided birth registration certificates for Tk5,000 to Tk10,000.