Bangladesh is months away from the golden jubilee of its independence but a complete list of the valiant people who put their lives at stake for the country's freedom is yet to be finalised, bdnews24.com reports.
The government has so far processed 123,000 new applications for inclusion in the latest list of freedom fighters from across the country, barring those from the Khulna Division.
The authorities are also scrutinising another list of 43,000 people, who are acknowledged in civilian freedom fighter gazettes but lack any other verifiable records.
The verification process will be completed by the offices of deputy commissioners and Upazila Nirbahi Officers on January 9, according to the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs.
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque is also hopeful that the government's efforts will yield an actual figure of freedom fighters.
The government issued a gazette on Jun 2 giving recognition to 1,256 individuals as freedom fighters, which took the tally to 203,056, with more in the pipeline.
According to the minister, the freedom fighters' count stands at 333,856 when every individual named in all available lists is considered. But the tally drops down to 251,285 if only those who claimed the recognition are taken into account.
Mozammel, however, believes that the actual figure will not exceed 170,000 once multiple documents issued for one person are removed from the equation.
He said that the different spellings used to identify a particular person in various lists was the reason that certain individuals were named in several lists. The government is working to iron out any discrepancies by removing the names that appear on multiple lists, he added.
Rathindra Nath Datta, deputy secretary (Gazette) to the ministry, said, “The actual number can’t be determined at the moment as the verification process of 43,500 new applicants is ongoing. It may take longer to find out the real number even after the process is completed.”
183,000 RECEIVING ALLOWANCES
The government is providing allowances to 172,000 freedom fighters and 11,000 martyrs, wounded and state-awarded title owners. Each of them receives an annual sum of Tk 171,000 from the government.
“As many as 192,000 freedom fighters used to receive allowances earlier. But now, 172,000 get it after the government adopted the management information system (MIS) for distribution,” said Sufi Abdullahil Maruf, senior information officer at the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs.
“The allowances for 20,000 individuals remain suspended for different reasons, including the fact that their names don't match with the national identity cards or lack uniformity with other papers of the gazette,” he said.
Each freedom fighter has been receiving Tk 12,000 a month since July 2019, according to another ministry official.
The allowances include Tk 10,000 as a bonus on every Eid, Tk 5,000 for Victory Day and Tk 2,000 during the Bengali New Year celebrations, taking the total to Tk 171,000 each year.
FREQUENT CHANGES IN DEFINITION AND CRITERIA
The list of freedom fighters has been revised six times in the last 49 years since independence, with changes to definitions, criteria and age limit to qualify as a freedom fighter being made on 11 occasions, ministry officials have said.
According to documents from the army, the books published by sector commanders and sub-sector commanders after the war mentioned 24,800 people as enlisted in the regular forces and 107,000 in the irregular forces, equating to a total of 170,000 as freedom fighters.
Officials from the Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad and the ministry also pointed out that there were multiple attempts at creating a list prior to 1998, but those never materialised.
Former Chairman of Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust Maj Gen (Retd) Amin Ahmed Chowdhury had published a list of freedom fighters in the form of a volume, based on information he collected from different sectors during the Liberation War. The list contained 70,896 names but questions remained over where the remaining 60,904 would go.
In 1998, the Muktijoddha Sangsad led by Momin Ullah Patwary created the first list of freedom fighters on the instructions of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, according to officials.
It has since been preserved at the Sangsad as the ‘Red Book’. Although the list contains the names of 154,000 people, not all of them were mentioned in the gazette, Liberation War Affairs Minister Mozammel said.
However, officials pointed out that while the ‘Red Book’ had most of the names in it, some were not included.
2001-2006 LISTING PHASE
During the term of the four-party coalition government led by the BNP, the responsibility fell to a national committee headed by the then cabinet secretary Saadat Husain to identify freedom fighters, replacing the Muktijoddha Sangsad.
The committee was tasked with formulating a valid list of freedom fighters to pass on to the government.
In March 2002, a ‘special gazette’ was published with names of 159,000 freedom fighters, including 39,000 members of the armed forces, through the referrals made by the committee.
The BNP government awarded freedom fighter certificates to another 44,000 new applicants, taking the tally to 198,000.
LISTING FROM 2009 TO PRESENT
The then State Minister for Liberation War Affairs AB Tajul Islam raised complaints in parliament that 72,000 individuals had been given 'fake recognition' and inducted into the list during the BNP government.
Following this, the ministry decided to undertake the verification process in May 2009, while Tajul gave the responsibility to a committee, comprising DCs and UNOs, which would be supplied a list by the Muktijoddha Sangsad.
The committee, however, failed to deliver in two years, leading to an intervention from the ministry and the parliamentary committee. They questioned a list of 62,000 and asked the Muktijoddha Sangsad to expand their verification process to cover another 145,000 individuals.
But the work did not see any progress as the tenure of the then Muktijoddha Sangsad neared an end.
From 2010 to 2012, the Awami League government provided freedom fighter certificates to another 11,000 people, raising the tally to 209,000.
The ministry also revoked gazettes of several secretaries, hundreds of government officials and certificate holders during this period.
Later, in the light of a new definition, applications for inclusion in the freedom fighters' gazette were received online on the website of National Freedom Fighter Council.
Most of the 44,000 inducted in the list during the BNP government's regime and half of the 11,000 recognised during the Awami League’s previous government, were flagged as 'fake'.
A preliminary list of freedom fighters will be released later this month, according to Mozammel.