Government to publish names of FFs, collaborators gradually

The government has decided to publish the names of freedom fighters and the collaborators of Pakistani forces gradually from the forthcoming Victory Day on December 16.

The liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Huq on Sunday told New Age that the names of the freedom fighters, under screening of the Jatiya Muktijoddha Council, and names of the Pakistani collaborators during the Independence War would be published on different instalments from the Victory Day as they did not have the complete lists.

‘As per our request, deputy commissioners of some districts sent partial lists of the collaborators from their record rooms while most others did not send any list. We ordered them to resent those in the quickest possible time,’ he said.

The ministry, he said, was expecting the list of the Rajakars, Al-badrs and Al-shams from the public security division of the home ministry on Tuesday.

The ministry informed a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry on Sunday that it got the lists from 10 out of 64 districts.

Meherpur deputy commissioner had sent a list of 169 collaborators, Narail DC sent a list of 55 collaborators, Shariatpur DC sent a list of 44 collaborators, Chandpur DC sent a list of nine collaborators while Bagerhat DC sent the name of just one collaborator.

DCs of Khagrachhari, Magura, Sherpur and Gaibandha officially informed that there was no collaborator in those districts.

DC Jashore in his partial report sent to the ministry said that there was no collaborator in Sharsha upazila of the district.

Liberation war researcher Shahriar Kabir said that the ministry would never be able to make the complete list of the collaborators by engaging the bureaucrats.

‘Making the list of the collaborators is, however, easier to preparing the list of the freedom fighters as different documents of the time featured names of the beneficiaries of the Pakistani government in 1971,’ he said.

‘And so the researchers must be engaged,’ he said adding that former lieutenant general in the Pakistan Army AAK Niazi in his book stated that the number of collaborators was around 50,000.

Bangladesh Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust managing director Iftekharul Islam Khan said that while posted at the home ministry in 1997 he had found a list of 44,000 Razakars members, Al-badr 8,000 and Al-shams 3,000 members.

Liberation war affairs minister Mozammel Huq, however, said that actions would be taken against the district administrations for the failure.

‘We are also pursuing the election commission to send the names of people who took oaths as members of national assembly and members of provincial assembly after declaration of the independence,’ he said.

It was also informed at the standing committee meeting that the JMC members would approve for inclusion of over 1,000 names as freedom fighters in its forthcoming 66th meeting.

The date of the meeting was not finalised, JMC officials told New Age adding that committees had been formed for scrutinising 37,200 review petitions.

The committee chairman Shajahan Khan told New Age that the standing committee expressed satisfaction at the progress of preparing the lists of the freedom fighters and collaborators of Pakistan.

‘We understand that making authentic lists after so many days are really challenging,’ said Shajahan also a JMC member and head of Dhaka division screening committee of the council.

Shajahan also said that the standing committee also approved the ministry’s decision of providing home-loan to 14,000 destitute freedom fighters next year when the nation would celebrate birth centenary of founding president of the country Sheikh Mujuibur Rahman by spending Tk 2,200 crore.

‘Each of the selected freedom fighters would be given Tk 15 lakh for making homes. The government will pay 5 per cent interest in favour of each of the beneficiaries when each of them would pay only interest at 1.25 per cent,’ Shajahan said.

The proposal for approval of the finance ministry would be sent after finalising the home-loan policy, he said.

The standing committee members including Razi Uddin Ahmed and Major General (retd) Rafiqul Islam Bir Uttam discussed the status of the properties of the Kalyan Trust.

The committee also asked the ministry to take initiative to make a feature film on the glorious Operation Jackpot for spreading the spirit of the war among the young generation.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net