By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka

A top election commission official in Bangladesh yesterday claimed to have received a death threat over his personal cell phone by an unknown person.
Acting chief election commissioner (CEC) Mohammad Abdul Mobarak said he received the threat while he was holding a meeting with three other election commissioners -Abu Hafiz, Shah Nawaz and Zabed Ali - at the election commission
secretariat in Dhaka.
Confirming the incident, a Sher-e-Banglanagar police station official said the personal secretary of the acting CEC filed a general diary following the
incident.
According to the GD, an unknown person made a phone call on the personal mobile phone of the CEC at around 12:20pm and when the CEC received the call, the unknown caller threatened him.
The unknown caller threatened the acting CEC saying: “I am the messenger of your death. Your time period of life has been fixed. Your wife will be a widow and children will turn into orphans very soon.”
Police said security measures have been intensified in and around the election commission secretariat immediate after the acting CEC was served the threat.
Police and election commissioner officials said the threat came following his comment on the participation of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the upazila (sub-district) election.
On March 30, Mobarak said the BNP joined the upzilla polls under the incumbent election commission after having its nose rubbed in the dirt.
Mobarak also triggered a controversy when he justified killings during the just-concluded upzilla elections saying Allah has taken back His creations as per His wish.
BNP leaders have criticised the comment of the acting CEC and also demanded his resign from his post. Biplab Kumer Sarkar, deputy commissioner of Tejgaon division of police, said they were trying to detect the person, who made the call and issued the threat.
Abdul Mobarak has been made the acting CEC as CEC Kazi Raqib Uddin Ahmad, is in the United States along with his family members.
A BNP standing committee member yesterday said the election commission “should be impeached” through a supreme judicial council for “violating” constitution.
“The constitution says the commission could comprise one or more and one of them could be the chief election commissioner; but it says nothing about an ‘acting’ chief election commissioner... There is no legal base of appointing Abdul Mobarak as the acting chief election commissioner,” said Rafiqul Islam Miah.
“We think that the commission has become illegal. To investigate their illegal activities, a judicial probe committee should be formed. So, I think the incumbent election commission should be impeached through a supreme judicial council,” he added.
Addressing a discussion in the capital Dhaka, the BNP leader said election officials, ruling party leaders and the election commission had jointly destroyed the electoral and democratic processes.