The interim government has initiated a move to revoke freedom fighter certificates issued allegedly on fake documents without proper verification in the past 15 years of the authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina and exclude their names from gazette after thorough verification.
The liberation war affairs ministry has already sought documents from those freedom fighters, who have been appointed under the 30 per cent quota, earlier reserved for freedom fighters鈥� children and their grandchildren in public service, ministry officials confirmed.
The government officials along with some former ministers of the now ousted Awami League government got listed in gazettes as freedom fighters and were provided certificates allegedly without verification, allowing them to avail facilities including allowances, accommodations and jobs in many cases.
鈥榃e have sent a proposal to the Chief Adviser鈥檚 Office to reconstitute the Jatio Muktijoddha Council, the highest body responsible for preparing an accurate list of freedom fighters and excluding names of those proved not genuine and scrapping their certificates,鈥� liberation war affairs secretary Ishrat聽 Chowdhury told 抖阴精品 in the past week.
She said that the 11-member Jatio Muktijoddha Council dissolved automatically with the fall of the Awami League government on August 5 amid the student-led mass uprising as the body was led by the then liberation war affairs minister as per law.
She said that the council would now be reconstituted with adviser for the liberation war affairs ministry Faruk E Azam, also a freedom fighter, in chair.
The secretary said that they had already suspended allowances to nearly a dozen of beneficiaries as their documents submitted to get the freedom fighter certificates were primarily found forged, while the fate of 2,089 more freedom fighters, who were earlier found aged below 12 and a half years during the country鈥檚 War of聽 Independence in 1971, remained pending with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
Each freedom fighter generally receives a monthly allowance of Tk 20,000 besides other allowances and facilities.
Ishrat said that they had already reconstituted the field-level committee led by Upazila Nirbahi Officers to verify authenticity of the freedom fighter鈥檚 status in case any complaints are received.
鈥榃e are receiving such complaints every day and sending those to the field-level committee for verification,鈥� she said.
Despite repeated moves, the previous governments have failed to prepare a complete list of actual freedom fighters, said officials, adding that there were around two lakh freedom fighters listed so far in over 53 years of the country鈥檚 independence won through a nine-month war fought against Pakistani occupation forces.聽
