The government has begun finalising the list of Biranganas from the Liberation War, and is expected to complete it within two months, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque told parliament yesterday.
In reply to a question from opposition lawmaker Nur-e-Hasna Lili Chowdhury, Mozammel said the nation has not forgotten the plight of the female members of our society, who were subject to sexual violence during the war.
“The father of the nation recognised them as Biranganas. We will definitely recognise them as freedom fighters,” he said, adding that those who wish their names to not be published will be left out of the list, keeping in line with their wish.
He told the House that there will be three lists of Biranganas.
“Only those who wish to make public their names will be featured on the list, which will be published through a gazette notification and given due recognition and allowances as other freedom fighters.”
There are many Biranganas who wish their names not be listed on a public forum due to social stigma attached to victims.
“That list will be still made and preserved in private to keep record,” Mozammel said.
He also said the government had taken fresh initiatives to make a list of Al-Badar, Al-Shams and Razakar so that the future generation could know about the atrocities they committed during the liberation war.
He added that there was a list of collaborators of Pakistani occupation force in the Home Ministry but the past BNP-led government had destroyed that list.
A total of 134,000 new applications for enrollment as freedom fighters have come in, he said, adding that the process of cancelling the certificates of fake freedom fighters was going on and that cases were being filed against many freedom fighters based on field reports of National Security Intelligence.
