The pro-liberation forces, professional organisations and political parties must come forward to launch a movement against such evil attempts for the sake of the country's existence, they said.

They also said that they would appeal to the caretaker government to remove distorted history from the textbooks and reprint real history for the sake of the future generations.

Sammilita Nagorik Andolon organised the roundtable on 'Distortion of liberation war history: Our duties' at the National Press Club in the city, with Justice KM Sobhan in the chair.

Prof Muntasir Mamoon said all the successive governments have tried to control history, but the BNP-Jamaat alliance government has rewritten history after they came to power in 2001.

The four-party alliance distorted history in the textbooks, which has done immense harm to the nation, he said, adding that the history of liberation war is portrayed as an isolated incident.

He said the liberation war affairs ministry has also brought changes to the 15-volume liberation war documents, but no-one has protested the move.

Condemning the distortion of history of independence in a documentary entitled 'Bangladesh Amar Bangladesh', Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique said those who killed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are now engaged in such evil attempts, but they will be thrown into the dustbin of history.

"Now the main duty of us is to project the real history to the new generation," he said.

Justice Sobhan said the distortion of history began after the killing of Bangabandhu and during the regime of late president Ziaur Rahman.

The ruling alliance wants to undermine the contribution of Bangabandhu to independence, he said, but Bangabandhu will be remembered forever in the hearts of the people.

Cultural personality Ramendu Majumder said, "The evil forces have been trying to jeopardise independence, but we could not launch a strong movement to resist them."

Golam Kuddus, general secretary of Sammalita Sangskritik Jote, said the BNP-Jamaat government wants to misled people by broadcasting the documentary with distorted history in order to gain benefit from the next election.

Artist Hashem Ali Khan, women's rights activist Shirin Akter, The Bangladesh Observer Editor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Principal Abdul Ahad Chowdhury and Dr Kazi Faruk Ahmed also spoke.