40,000 Ffs’ names finalised, 54,000 more under process
Sabrina Karim Murshed
The Ministry of Liberation War Affairs has finalised 40,000 names of freedom fighters and included them in the gazette. Names of 54,000 other are under the process of inclusion.Listing of freedom fighters is an ongoing project that began two years ago. "There has been at least four lists of freedom fighters but all of them are in the draft stage," said a higher official of the ministry. "We decided to make it final through gazette notification." The first list was prepared in 1980. A national list was prepared in 1986 that puts the number of freedom fighter at 1,0,24,580. But that was not a conclusive one, as there was another list in 1989 prepared by the Muktijoddha Welfare Trust. "It was done by Brigadier Amin Ahmed Chowdhury by collecting lists of freedom fighters trained at different training camps in India," he said. The list has names of 69,833 freedom fighters. Another list, popularly known as 'Voter index list', was prepared in 1994 by Brigadier AJM Aminul Haque that enlisted 86,000 names of freedom fighters, the official said. Another list was prepared between 1997 and 2001 known as Mukti Barta list named after the newspaper it was published in. It had 186,790 freedom fighters' names on it. State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Prof. Rejaul Karim in his statement in parliament on November 29 blamed the previous governments for preparing different sets of lists with different numbers. He said there would not have been any confusion about the number if any of the past governments had gazetted the number of freedom fighters. "We are compiling the names from all those lists," said the official. He claimed the ministry is not adding new names to the list. The official said those freedom fighters whose names are on all the lists, or even on two of them, are accepted as 'indisputable' by the ministry. "But those names that exist on only one list are being investigated to ensure that not a single name of a fake freedom fighter makes its way to the list," he added. The official dismissed the suggestion of any favouritism in drawing up the list. "It is impossible as the ministry is not picking any new names but only finalising the old ones," he said. When asked the official said there is no deadline for the task. "But we are trying to finish it as soon as possible," he said.
| 
