Khulna chief given 5-day remand, five more held

---

Khulna Divisional Chief Conservator of Forest Mizanur Rahman was given to police remand for five days when produced before the court Monday, report UNB/ bdnews24.com.
Meanwhile, crackdown on custodians of forests scaled up as army-led joint forces arrested five more top forest officers Monday in charges of corruption. Four were arrested from Chittagong while one from Moulvibazar.
Khalispur thana sub-inspector Jamaluddin producing Mizan to the CMM court said he was involved in heavy corruption by way of selling resources of the Sundarbans and extorting bribe. He sought for his remand for ten days for interrogation. Magistrate Atiqul Haq granted five days.
The joint forces arrested Mizan from the Divisional Headquarters of Forest Department at Boira in the city on Sunday. He was later handed over to the Khalishpur police.
In Chittagong, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) sources said Divisional Forest Officer Md Jafrul Hasan surrendered to the elite force at their Patenga office at 2.30pm.
A joint-force team searched his office and house twice Sunday night and Monday morning but could not arrest him.
"There are specific allegations of corruption against him (Jafrul Hasan)", said one source.
Besides, the joint forces arrested Rangamati (South) Divisional Forest Officer Asitranjan Pal after raiding his house in the city Monday noon.
UNB Rangamati correspondent said Pal was run in from the joint forces in Rangamati Sunday night. Later RAB-7 took him with them and arrested him today.
RAB sources said he was involved in various kinds of corruption, including "timber smuggling".
Meanwhile, joint forces searched the office of Project Director of Chakaria Safari Park and Chittagong (South) Forest Officer Tapan Kumar Dey at Nandankanan in Chittagong in Monday afternoon.
They could not arrest him as he went into hiding.
According to the sources, the joint forces seized over Tk 1.8 million from the office.
Moreover, as the massive drive went on, divisional forest conservator Ariful Azam was reined in from Nandankanan of the port city Monday afternoon.
The four are among a number of custodians of the country's forests being rounded up on charges of plundering the forest resources. Ill luck befell them in the changed situation, and booking them began with the arrest of their multimillionaire top boss, the chief conservators of forests, Osman Gani.
In Moulvibazar, Joint Forces arrested divisional forest officer Lasker Maksudur Rahman from the district Monday.
Joint forces raided a rest house of Forest Department at Srimongol at 4.45 pm and arrested Maksudur Rahman.
He was taken to RAB-9 office at Islampur in Sylhet city for interrogation.