This story first appeared in Prothomalo
It has not been possible to prepare an accurate and full list of freedom fighters over the past 52 years since the independence of Bangladesh. The Jatiyo Muktijoddha Council (Jamuka), which exercises legal authority to prepare the list of freedom fighters, holds meetings almost every month aimed at either adding new names of freedom fighter to the list or dropping someone from it. As a result, uncertainty looms large over whether a correct and full list of freedom fighters will be prepared during the third term of Awami League.
According to the gazette branch of the liberation war affairs ministry, a total of 235,467 people have been gazetted as freedom fighter from time to time while the budget branch of the same ministry said the government allocated allowance to 219,758 freedom fighters in January this year. Besides, the government published an incomplete list of 147,537 freedom fighters in March 2021 on the occasion of the golden jubilee of independence. As a result, ambiguity remains on the actual number of freedom fighters in the country.
Liberation War Affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque said work on preparing a full list of freedom fighters nears to an end and the number of actual freedom fighter would not exceed 190,000. He told Prothom Alo on 23 March, “No appeal to include name in the list of freedom fighters will not be accepted after next June and no one will also be included anew either. We hope to finalise work on the full list of freedom fighters by this year.”
According to Jamuka, a person requires 33 documents to prove himself/herself as a freedom fighter. The name of many freedom fighters differs in various documents, and finally, the name on the national identity card is considered for documentation. Many freedom fighters are facing hassle because of difference of name in the identity card and the list. All this contributes to the delay in publishing the full list.
Two important members of the cabinet appealed to Jamuka in 2021 to include their name in the list of freedom fighter. Jamuka ‘recognised’ fisheries and livestock minister SM Rezaul Karim as a freedom fighter under ‘special consideration’ and rejected the appeal, in which finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal himself claimed to be a freedom fighter, after scrutinising it. There are lots of such applications from numerous influential people pending at Jamuk and the agency is scrutinising those.
Currently, a freedom fighter receives an allowance of Tk 20,000 a month, an Eid allowance of Tk 10,000 twice a year, a Victory Day allowance of Tk 5,000 and a Bengali New Year allowance of Tk 2,000.
The government published a gazette on 29 October 2020 stating that the word ‘bir’ (valiant) must be used before the name of a freedom fighter. A government order was issued in 2012 to extend retirement age of freedom fighters holding a government job by one more year to 60 years from the regular retirement age of 59 years. Since then, according to Jamuka sources, top government officials started applying for the recognition of freedom fighter. Yet, application of four secretaries and a joint secretary, who once were recognised as freedom fighter, were revoked in 2014 after verification.
The list of freedom fighters has been revised at least seven times in 52 years with age, definition and standard to get a recognition as a freedom fighter being changed for 11 times.
Jamuka sources said the Ershad government took an initiative to formulate a list of freedom fighters in 1984 and formed a national committee. The national committee then prepared a list of 102,458 freedom fighters, known as the national list, from a list collected by Bangladesh Freedom Fighters Welfare Trust (Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust) formed during the Bangabandhu government, a list of East Bengal Regimental Centre (EBRC) in Chattogram, and a list from India.
Then Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust managing director Major General Amin Ahmed Chowdhury, Bir Bikram, collected a list of 69,833 freedom fighters from India in 1988, which is known as the Indian list of freedom fighters. Muktijoddha Kendriya Command Council convener Brigadier General (retired) AJM Aminul haque, Bir Uttam, formulated a list of 86,000 freedom fighters in 1994 to conduct the election of the Kendriya Command Council. A list of 186,790 freedom fighters was prepared during the Awami League government in 1996-2000, which is known as Muktibarta (green). Another list of 158,452 freedom fighters, which is known as Muktibarta (red), was formulated later following verification.
Jamuka sources said a 15-member national committee was formed during BNP-led 4-party Alliance government in 2001-2006 with then cabinet secretary Saadat Hussain as convener and liberation war affairs ministry joint secretary Momtaz Uddin as member secretary. This committee prepared a list of 210,581 freedom fighters.
When Awami League came to power in 2009, it alleged the BNP-led 4-party alliance government included more than 70,000 non-freedom fighters in the list. The Awami League government then formed local committees with all deputy commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers and started verification process to omit the name of non-freedom fighters from the list. Meantime, the Awami League government has added 11,500 new names to the list of freedom fighters and dropped nearly 20,000 names from it. However, inclusion of new names in the list of freedom fighters has not stopped.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee president Shahriar Kabir said name of all actual freedom fighters are yet to be included in the list of freedom fighters and name of people who did not participate in the liberation war has also been added to the list. Recently, influential and powerful people have been active to add their name in the list of freedom fighters to hide their wrongdoings.
If an independent commission scrutinises and verifies the list of freedom fighters of the MIS (the government maintains the full database of freedom fighters receiving allowance with management information system centre), then the list will halves. The names of many freedom fighters allegedly did not appear in the list as they failed to bribe the people concerned. So, the list of freedom fighters will never be error free, and it will be possible to omit non-freedom fighters from the list only when rules will be introduced to provide allowance to needy freedom fighters, he added.
This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna