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Extortion in Tikatuli

Jubo League man finally expelled

Staff Correspondent
Three days after he had been detained and released by Rapid Action Battalion, a top leader of Jubo League, the youth front of ruling Awami League, was expelled from the organisation yesterday over allegations of extortion.
Iqbal Mahmud, publications secretary of Jubo League, confirmed that Rezaul Karim Reza, 45, acting general sectary of the Jubo League's Dhaka South unit, has indeed been expelled for extortion.
A Rab official said Reza and 10 other ruling party men were detained Thursday in connection with extortion and vandalism at Rajdhani Super Market in the capital'sTikatuli.
The 10 men had been detained during a Rab-backed mobile court raid that morning and sentenced to different jail terms.
Hours after his detenu on, Reza was released due to "lobbing", said a Rab official, wishing not to be named.
Jahangir Hossain Matubbar, commanding officer of Rab-10, said they received allegation of extortion at the market inTikatuli from some shop owners at thebeginning of Ramadan.
They had been monitoring the situation there with undercover Rab personnel, added the Rab official.
A Rab official, wishing not to be named, said they had picked up Reza as he was obstructingtheir activities during the raid. But Reza was released lateras Rab did not find any evidence regarding his involvement in extortion, the Rab official said.
The mobile court, led by Executive Magistrate Sarwoer Alam and backed by Rab-10, raided the place around 10:00amThursday.
The court detained the 10 people and recovered around Tk 1.6 lakh, extorted from different shops, said Alam.
Those who were sentenced to jail terms were: Sanaul Karim, 27, Abdul Haque, 54, Enayet Hossain Babu, 48, Kamal Uddin, 56, Mohammad
Arif, 44, Ahsanullah, 40, Zahirul Islam Zahir, 28, Ali Hossain Montu, 36, Sadaf Shahriar Hasan, 23, and Faruq Hossain Babu, 29.
He said of the detainees, Kamal and Arif were sentenced to 45 days and the rest eight to three months each.
The convicts were members of pro-ruling party organisations, including Chhatra League, Jubo League and Awami League itself, according to media reports.
According to shop owners, Reza is the "self declared" general secretary while local ward councillor Mainul Haq Manju is the "selfproclaimed" president of shop owners' association of the market
They alleged that Manju, a local Awami League leader and councillor of ward-39, extorts them.
The Daily Star called Reza on his mobile phone but he did not pick up.
Contacted, Manju denied the allegations against him. He said there was no case filed in connection with extortion against him with the local police station.
He also demanded a fair probe into the matter.
Several shop owners at the market said they had been giving money on a monthly basis in thename of generator bills and salaries for security guards.
Although these bills were about Tk 900, they had to pay overTk 2,000 ahead of Eid.
Wishing not to be named, a shop owner who has a home appliance shop at the market, said they threatened to cut off the electricity supply to the shop when the shop owner refused to pay.
TWO DAYSWITHOUTPOWER
Power to the market was disconnected Friday night, creating a huge loss to the traders ahead of Eid.
The shop owners said they had been told that a technical failure caused the power outage.
They said they were counting losses every day since customers were relu ctant to go there.
During a visit to the market yesterday afternoon, The Daily Star found that shops at the tin-roofed one-storey market were running with limited supply of electricity produced by generators.
Two to three florescent bulbs and a couple of fans were all that were on in a shop, less than half