March 28, 2024, 10:29 pm


FT Online

Published:
2019-12-19 23:00:35 BdST

Razakar list will have no freedom fighter: PM


Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said no freedom fighter will be there in the list of Razakars as the recently disclosed list is no way that of the collaborators of Pakistani occupation forces.
 
“I want to say unequivocally that no freedom fighter will be labelled as Razakar. It won’t happen…it's impossible…it won’t occur at least during my tenure,” she said adding that the list of Razakars will be scrutinised further.
 
The Prime Minister said this while delivering her opening speech at the meeting of Bangladesh Awami League Central Working Committee at her official residence Ganobhaban.
 
Sheikh Hasina urged the aggrieved families of freedom fighters to see the matter with compassion and forgiveness.
 
“I would like tell those who got hurt to be calm and see the matter with forgiveness…they [freedom fighters] can never be there in the list of Razakars…they can rest assured,” she said.
 
The Prime Minister said confusion was created as the Liberation War Affairs Ministry published the list on the website without scrutinising it.
 
Hasina said she earlier directed the Liberation War Ministry to publish the list following proper scrutiny, but the ministry did it in hurriedly ahead of the Victory Day.
 
“It (list) is no way the list of Razakars,” she said adding that there are separate lists of Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams which had been published in the gazettes.
 
She said a list of terrors had been prepared during the Pakistan period where the names of freedom fighters were incorporated.
 
Following the August-15 massacre, military dictators Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad, and even Khaleda Zia used the list.
 
“There has been confusion between the list of terrors and the list of Razakars. Hadn’t Ziaur Rahman, Ershad or Khaleda Zia used the list, the problem would not have appeared,” said the Prime Minister.
 
She said once late President Zillur Rahman and incumbent President Md Abdul Hamid had been labelled as the two top terrors in Kishoreganj.
 
Later, it had been learnt that their names appeared as the top terrors as per a list prepared by the Pakistan government, Sheikh Hasina said.
 
She said it is a matter of regret that the names of freedom fighters came in the list of Razakars just before the Victory Day was celebrated amid festivity.
 
The Prime Minister said it (incorporation of freedom fighters in the list of Razakars) is definitely a punishable offence and the real culprits will face the music.
She said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had initiated the trial of war criminals immediately after the independence of Bangladesh.
 
But Ziaur Rahman stopped the trial and brought anti-liberation elements to power, who incorporated the names of many collaborators in the list of freedom fighters, Sheikh Hasina said.
 
Talking about the development made during her government, she said Bangladesh is now the role model of development across the world. “Today Bangladesh has emerged as a development miracle,” she added.
 
The Prime Minister said her government brought down the poverty rate to 20.5 percent and increased the GDP growth rate to 8.15 percent.

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