Conservator of Forests (CF), Central Circle, Ali Kabir Haider and Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Shamsul Azam were arrested from Bon Bhaban at Mohakhali in the capital. Law enforcers arrested CF of Khulna Sheikh Mizanur Rahman at his official residence at Khalishpur, Khulna. They also arrested DFO of Rangamati Asit Ranjan Pal at his office in Rangamati.

The arrestees are suspected corrupt officials and are close aides to Gani. Their names came up on a list, which was prepared based on information gleaned from Gani.

Officials in the forest department said joint forces also raided their office in Chittagong to arrest two close associates of Gani but they failed as the two were not in the office.

A member of the joint forces around midnight said they were raiding different places taking Ali Kabir Haider with them. The member said raiding Haider's Wari residence in the capital, they seized bonds worth Tk 50 lakh, and deposit books of different banks where he deposited around Tk 30 lakh and 12 tolas of gold ornaments.

Law enforcers also raided Shamsul Azam's father-in-law's residence in Dholaipar last night and seized 79 tolas of gold ornaments and Tk 1 lakh in cash.

Gani was arrested with a large amount of cash tucked away inside his Uttara home on May 29. He was taken on twelve days' of remand in four phases.

The forest boss was arrested with Tk 1 crore in cash that he had hidden in different places in his house including in pillows and barrels of rice.

The law enforcers, later on, found title deeds of several plots of land and documents of bank accounts in his, his wife's, close relatives' and staffs' names after Gani had confessed to interrogators about those.

Our Staff Correspondent in Khulna adds: The joint forces yesterday arrested Conservator of Forests in Khulna Sheikh Mizanur Rahman at his official residence in the city's Khalishpur area.

During the three-hour raid at Mizanur's house, Tk 2,40,000 in cash, foreign currencies including $400, two passports, and an arms licence were seized. He was shown arrested under the Emergency Powers Act.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) task force assisted the army-led joint forces in carrying out the operation.

Mizanur Rahman who was promoted to his current post early this year did not submit his wealth statement within June 20 as directed by the anti-graft body.

Osman Gani named him as one of his accomplices.

Members of the joint forces and the ACC task force also raided the DFO office (west wing) in Khulna city, taking with them Mizan who had also served as a divisional forest officer (DFO) in the east wing of the Sundarbans Forest Division.

From there, they went to his village at Chalna under Dakop upazila in Bagerhat. The search at his village home was going on as of filing this report late in the evening.

Forest division sources said the arrest has set alarm bells ringing for the nine other forest officials who too did not turn in their wealth statements within the deadline of June 20.

The intelligence agencies are reportedly keeping a close watch on the movements of suspected corrupt forest officials.

Our correspondent from Rangamati reports: The joint forces split in several groups raided the District Forest Office around 3:45pm and held Asit Ranjan Pal, the DFO covering CHT South Forest Department and Pulpwood Forest Department.

They first took him to the Sadar zone headquarters and after primary interrogation there, they took the detained forest official to the Pulpwood Forest Office at Kaptai upazila.

The crack forces also searched the DFO residence at Kaptai. Later, they handed Asit over to Kaptai police.