"Despite all adversities I tried to educate my two children and arrange marriage for my two daughters but now it seems impossible for me," said Ali, who works as a guard of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad Central Command Council office.

Expressing his dissatisfaction, Ali said the freedom fighters are now neglected by the government. The freedom fighters' monthly allowance was Tk 2,500 since 2000, but the amount was reduced to Tk 600 in July 2002, he added.

Ali is among some 50,000 freedom fighters and their family members living in utter miseries at 13 temporary Muktijoddha camps in the city.

The camps are located in Mirpur, Tikatuli, Gulshan, Mohammadpur, Shyamoli and Paltan. These camps are temporary and they may be evicted anytime.

Besides, hooligans, extortionists, local influential leaders often plot to occupy the camps. The freedom fighters are often threatened by them, sources at different camps said.

"We are always in anxiety of being evicted by influential people," said a freedom fighter at Tikatuli camp who have been staying there for the last 20 years.

Syed Shahidul Haque Mama, a founder member of Muktijoddha Sangshad Central Command Council, said, "The present government has stopped the honorarium and allowances of many freedom fighters in the name of revising the freedom fighters' list."

"A large number of people who did not take part in the war are receiving the allowances. Their names have been included because of their allegiance to the ruling party. On the other hand, the names of true freedom fighters have been excluded from the list," he alleged.

The freedom fighters' families were enlisted for allowance in the year 2000 but the government stopped the allowance two years later, since the authorities thought it would need verification whether they were real freedom fighters.

"We are carrying out investigation so that the names of fake freedom fighters do not exist in the final list," said a high official of the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs.

When asked about the inhuman life of freedom fighters at different Muktijoddha camps in the city, Prof Md Rezaul Karim, state minister of liberation war affairs, said these camps have been set up by different associations of freedom fighters with their own efforts. The government or the ministry is not bound legally to help them.

Commenting on why the freedom fighters remain neglected, Abdul Hannan, director general of Bangladesh Freedom Fighters Welfare Trust said, "No one is individually responsible for the situation, all the governments after 1971 are more or less responsible.

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