‘Gunfight staged’ to get loggers boat released

Three forest officials in Chattogram's Rangunia staged a fake gunfight allegedly to give back a boat, seized earlier with logs, to its owner in exchange for a bribe.

The Daily Star investigated the incident, which took place in Chiringa beat adjacent to the Karnaphuli river on January 3, and found it to be all cooked up.

The three forest officials at the centre of the plot are Masum Kabir, range officer of Rangunia Range Office, Shafikul Islam and Debobroto Debu, both forest guards at Chiringa beat, all under Chattogram South Forest Division.

Rouful Islam Khan, beat officer of Chiringa, filed two cases -- one with Rangunia Police Station, stating loggers fired at beat officers and took away the engine-run boat from where it was anchored.

Another was filed with the Forest Court, mentioning the boat was seized with illegal logs and planks. It did not mention any incident of attack.

Khaleque Member, who is named as the accused in both the cases, said he owns the boat and claimed, "My men had to pay Tk 40,000 to the range officer to get it released. It was done after mutual understanding."

He denied attacking the forest officials or carrying any illegal goods, claiming that he brings logs from the hill tracts for timber trade.

Usually, forest officials can practise COR (compounding offence report) under section 68 of Forest Act-1927, which allows them to release the seized goods by realising revenues from the loggers. In that case, the revenue goes straight to the government exchequer.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

According to the case filed with Forest Court on January 4, Masum Kabir, the range officer, seized the boat loaded with around 700 cubic feet of illegal logs from the Karnaphuli river at 10:00pm the previous day.

Sources from the Forest Department said after unloading the logs on the evening of January 4, Chiringa beat office staffers moored the boat at Chiringa canal adjacent to the river.

The staffers then left the place. While two guards stayed back, Masum waited at Khetro Bazar, which is a kilometre away from the spot.

Around 8:45pm, Masum Kabir phoned his colleagues to say a group of loggers attacked them at the beat and asked them to come to the spot soon.

When his colleagues reached there, Masum informed them that the loggers snatched away the boat, they added.

There is a tea-stall adjacent to Chiringa beat. An elderly man who was at the stall at that time told The Daily Star that no incident of gunfight took place there.

"I saw a few people come from across the Karnaphuli river. They had a chat with the forest officers and others. They then went away with a boat, which was anchored at Chiringa canal," he said.

Sources at the Forest Department said no staffer was present at the beat office when the so-called gunfight took place. Actually, the trio designed it this way to pocket all of the bribe money themselves, they added.

Mohammad Alam, a local contractor, told The Daily Star that asked by the Forest Department, he first supplied 14 labourers to unload the logs and planks from the boat around midnight on January 3. But they were not experienced in unloading big planks.

The next day, he hired another batch of labourers from Chattogram city and they unloaded the goods till 7:00pm.

"Just 15 or 20 minutes after we left, I got a call from the beat office that loggers attacked. I rushed there but found no sign of such an attack. I informed it to the top boss of the forest division but he shrugged it off," he said.

Mahbub Milky, officer-in-charge of Rangunia Police Station, told The Daily Star that the incident was not like what was stated in the case.

The forest officials had anchored the boat at a canal after seizing it, he said, adding that a few people came later and went away with the boat.

The boat was left in a way so that it can be easily taken away, the OC further said.

Shafikul Islam, divisional forest officer of Chattogram South Forest Division, did not receive repeated phone calls of this correspondent.

Rouful Islam Khan Tuhin, beat officer of Chiringa, said he was not on the spot and can't talk to the media without approval from his top boss.

Range Officer Masum Kabir claimed they fired nine rounds of bullets in retaliation when the loggers attacked them and the gunfight lasted for one hour. He alleged that the police and Khaleque Member were lying.

Shafikul Islam, one of the two forest guards, said they clashed for one hour with the loggers who were around 50 in number. He said the incident took place around 10:00pm.

Debobroto Debu, the other forest guard, echoed the same, except that it occurred around 8:00pm.

A villager who often works with the Forest Department and lives adjacent to the beat office told The Daily Star they saw the seizure of the boat on January 3 and they saw the boat being released by the forest guards on January 4. "It all happened peacefully."

"But," he added, "next day in the morning [on January 5], when I went to the tea stall, I heard forest guards talking about a gunfight. Had there been a gunfight for an hour, the whole village would have been terrified. Everyone would have known that."