Govt falters in its promise
The government has failed to keep the promise to publish a fresh list of razakars by the 50th Independence and National Day.
Amid nationwide outrage and angry protests, the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs on December 18 last year suspended the flawed list of razakars three days after its publication.
After huge criticism, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq said they would publish a fresh list by this Independence Day after proper scrutiny.
"We first thought we could publish the list by March 26, but we could not," he told The Daily Star on Tuesday.
"Later, we decided that we would publish the new list by April after the election to the Central Command Council of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad. Newly elected leaders of the organisation and renowned local people like physicians and educationists will review and prepare the new list," Mozammel said.
But again, referring to the spread of coronavirus in the country, the minister said, "I don't think we will be able to hold the polls in April."
He added that it would take at least six more months to prepare the fresh list. "We will need time to prepare a flawless list."
On December 15 last year, the ministry published the list containing the names of 10,789 persons.
It was supposed to include those who collaborated with the Pakistan occupation army in 1971. But many freedom fighters were utterly shocked to see their names on the list.
Announcing the list, Mozammel said it was prepared based on records preserved at the home ministry and that it was the first of the phases in which the government would make public the names of razakars.
CONTROVERSY
This newspaper found the names of at least 25 freedom fighters or war organisers on the list.
The list included the name of freedom fighter Sudhir Kumar Chakraborty, whose family gets the freedom fighter's allowance from the government. The Pakistan army killed him in August 1971.
It even contained the names of freedom fighter Ghulam Arieff Tipoo, chief prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal, and freedom fighter Mirza Abdul Latif, who led a group of 500 freedom fighters in the country's northern region in 1971.
In the face of nationwide outrage and angry protests after publication of the list, Mozammel said they just published the list provided by the home ministry without any modification.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said his ministry provided the list following a request from the Liberation War affairs ministry.
He added that his ministry sent a "note" to that ministry to scrutinise the list, but it did not take the "note" into consideration.
The home boss said it was actually a list of the accused in cases filed under the Collaborators Act.
At least 996 people were acquitted of the cases, but their names were still on the list. The Liberation War affairs ministry published the list without dropping those names, he added.
In January 1972, the government enacted the Collaborators Act to try war criminals and those who collaborated with the Pakistan army. Later, 37,000 people were arrested and sent to jail, and 26,000 of them were freed following the announcement of a general amnesty.
Around 11,000 were behind bars when the government of Justice Sayem and General Ziaur Rahman repealed the Collaborators Act on December 31, 1975. An appeal spree and release of war criminals en masse followed the scrapping of the law.
Liberation War researcher ASM Shamsul Arefin, who had published books carrying the names of 12,000 razakars, said Pakistan had initially planned to recruit 50,000 razakars and 12,000 to 15,000 Al-Badr and Al-Shams members.
He added that Pakistan had recruited around 35,000 razakars, and there were no statistics on Al-Badr and Al-Shams members.
Shamsul said he had published the names based on salary sheet of razakars recruited by police.
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