The Liberation War Affairs Ministry is yet to issue machine-readable digital certificates to the registered freedom fighters of the country under the “Freedom Fighters Database Project” scheduled to end by June 2013.
The Tk18.3lakh project aimed to distribute “secured certificate containing digital signatures,” among the freedom fighters of the country to ensure their rights and help end the long-standing debate over the freedom fighters’ list.
Although, 187,308 freedom fighters had been registered on the government database under the project, the Prime Minister was yet to approve them seeking further verification of the list. Therefore, the enlisted freedom fighters were still waiting for the digital certificates, said M Nurul Amin Khan, director of the database project.
In 2011, the government took the initiative to make a database with the names and family details of the freedom fighters by June 2013 to avoid tampering of the certificates.
Amin Khan said the ministry received around 3 lakh applications seeking the certificates, however, after scrutinising, the ministry registered 1,87,308 freedom fighters as valid following government gazette and Mukti Barta, a list considered to be the most accurate list of freedom fighters prepared by the Awami League in its previous term.
The Mukti Barta (Lal Boi) contains names of around 154,000 freedom fighters.
However, the list prepared during the tenure of BNP-led four-party alliance in 2002-2005, the number stood at 2.10 lakh.
Even after 42 years of the country’s independence, the ministry is yet to prepare a final and authentic list of the freedom fighters.
Although successive governments have prepared several lists of freedom fighters so far, they cited different numbers of freedom fighters with different lists, according sources in the Liberation War Affairs Ministry.
A statistics prepared by the ministry before December 2011, had enlisted 206,000 names of freedom fighters through a government gazette.
Another list, popularly known as ‘voter index list’, was prepared in 1994 that enlisted 86,000 names of freedom fighters and was actually a voter list prepared for the election of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad.
A national list prepared in 1986 mentions that there are 102,458 authentic freedom fighters in the country; however, another list prepared in the same year by Muktijoddha Welfare Trust indicated that there were around 69,833 freedom fighters in the country.
