AL men advocate for extortionists

A group of ruling Awami League activists, including Councillor of Ward 39 Moinul Haq of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), yesterday claimed that their fellows were "unjustifiably" arrested and punished on "false" charges of extortion before Eid-ul-Fitr.

They said that a Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-backed mobile court, during a raid, at Rajdhani Super Market jailed "10 people who are businessmen with clean records."

They made the claims at a press conference in the councillor's office.

However, a number of shop owners, on condition of anonymity, told The Daily Star that the people arrested and jailed were indeed extortionists.

"The extortionists became really desperate before the Eid and we sighed in relief when the gang was arrested and jailed," said a shop owner who submitted a written complaint to Rab-10 seeking its intervention before the Eid.

Rab officials on July 9 detained 10 men at the market and the mobile court sentenced them to different terms in jail ranging from one to three months.

Jahangir Hossain Matubbar, commanding officer of Rab-10, said they received allegations of extortion at the market in Tikatuli from some shop owners at the beginning of Ramadan.

They had been monitoring the situation deploying undercover Rab personnel, he added.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Md Golam Ambia Mahmud, who commanded the raid, said the criminals were caught in the act of extorting and vandalising at the market.