A second extortion case was filed yesterday against detained former Jamaat lawmaker Gazi Nazrul Islam with Shyamnagar Police Station. Two other local Jamaat leaders -- Gazi Nazrul's private assistant (PA) Gausul Azam from Khanpur village and a Jamaat Rokon Mahfuzur Rahman from Nurnagar village in Shyamnagar upazila -- have also been accused in the case.Earlier on April 16, the other extortion case was filed against two local Jamaat leaders including the former Jamaat lawmaker with the same police station for their alleged involvement in extorting Tk 50,000 from SM Abdur Rashid of Chakbara village in Shyamnagar upazila. Gazi Nazrul Islam has already been detained by joint forces. His name was included in the second list of graft suspects published by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on March 9.
Khaja Nazim Uddin, a shrimp cultivator from Gumantali village of the same upazila, lodged the extortion case accusing the three of demanding Tk 3 lakh from him in return for the possession of his shrimp enclosure that had been forcefully occupied by Mahfuzur Rahman and his Jamaat loyalist thugs. In his case statement, Khaja alleged that on April 22, 2006, a gang of criminals led by Mahfuzur Rahman raided and assaulted the staff members of his shrimp farm at Nidaya village in Shyamnagar upazila. The assailants drove everyone out and took over the farm. The next day, on April 23, then Jamaat lawmaker Gazi Nazrul Islam through his PA Gausul Azam demanded Tk 3 lakh from him if he wanted the shrimp farm back.
On April 24, 2006, being desperate to recover his farm, Khaja Nazim went to the former lawmaker's house at Islampur in Shyamnagar upazila and paid him Tk 2 lakh, Khaja said in the statement. Officer in Charge Nawsher Ali of Shyamnagar Police Station confirmed the incident. Gazi Nazrul Islam, central Majlish-e-Shura member of Jamaat-e-Islami, was elected member of parliament from Satkhira 5 (Shyamnagar) in 2001 with BNP-led 4-party alliance ticket.