50,000 'fake' FFs axed from list
Staff Correspondent
As many as 50,000 names enlisted as freedom fighters have been dropped from a new list due to fake identity, according to a national committee. The liberation war affairs ministry's committee on freedom fighters is currently preparing the new list of those who fought in 1971 for independence. It was disclosed at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry yesterday. The ministry in its report said a list of 1,86,790 freedom fighters was published in the Muktibarta during the immediate past government. Another prepared list of 13,432 freedom fighters could not be published in the gazette. But the national committee after reviewing the previous lists and applications from across the country found about one lakh freedom fighters real and observed that a minimum number might be added to the new list. The report also explained the reason behind the drop of over 1,000 war-affected freedom fighters. "They are not at all war-affected," the report said, quoting the orthopaedics committee's examination. "We found irregularities in the earlier enlistment process. The Awami League put scores of non-freedom fighters on the list," Salah Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the parliamentary committee, told The Daily Star yesterday. "This time we asked the ministry to maintain transparency in the ongoing process. As the fakes have been crossed off the list, the number is supposed to be fewer than the previous one's." The parliamentary committee decided that six lawmakers of the committee will monitor the enlisting process. Meanwhile, the liberation war affairs ministry will provide a loan of Tk 25 crore to the war-wounded freedom fighters without interest.
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