Dhaka, March 25 – Forty-eight years after the independence, the government has taken an attempt to make a “comprehensive list” of anti-Liberation War elements, Razakars and Al-Badr.
On an earlier occasion, a number of such lists were prepared by the successive governments but none had taken any attempt to prepare a “district wise” comprehensive list.
Sources in the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs told journalists that letters instructing the authorities to prepare the “district wise” list have already been sent to the Deputy Commissioners of each district.
Different platforms of freedom fighters and their families have raised voices to make the sons and daughters ineligible for government jobs and politics. They said, to do so, the government must have a
“comprehensive” and “authentic” list.
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque recently told a program that the Awami League government of 1996-2001 term had prepared a list of Razakars and Al-Badrs and had that list in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“People who were in power for a long time should answer why the list of collaborators was not prepared earlier,” he said adding, “there was a list of Razakars with the home ministry but it went missing when [Motiur Rahman] Nizami and [Ali Ahsan Mohammad] Mojahid were made cabinet members.”
Sources in the Ministry of Liberation war affairs said, after the independence, the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman enacted the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order 1972 to try the
collaborators those who abetted the Pakistan forces in the killing of Bengalis.
The government arrested 37,471 collaborators under the 1972 order until November 30, 1973. However, a general amnesty was declared for the collaborators in 1973. The general amnesty was, however, not applicable for those who had committed criminal offences like murder, rape and arson.
The 1972 order was repealed in 1975, which set free about 11,000 people in the custody.
ASM Shamsul Arefin, who had published books carrying names of 12,000 Razakers, said that Pakistan had planned to recruit 50,000 Razakars but they had recruited about 35,000.
“AL Badr and Al Shams targeted to recruit 11,000 to 15,000 but it is not known how many of them were recruited,” he said.
He said that he had published the names of Razakars based on salary sheet of police who had recruited Razakars. “There however should be an official list of local collaborators but and I am lauding the government
