The interim government of Bangladesh clarified on Wednesday that they have not dropped Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s name from the list of Muktijoddhas.
“The ordinance says clearly those associated with the Mujibnagar government will be regarded as associates of Muktijoddhas,” said Faruk-e-Azam, the adviser to the ministry of liberation war affairs.
On Tuesday night, the interim government issued an ordinance revising the definition of Muktijoddhas, which had sparked a controversy about Sheikh Mujib’s name being removed.
“Those who were members of the Mujibnagar Sarkar are all Muktijoddhas. The officials and employees of the Mujibnagar Sarkar will be regarded as associates,” Azam, a Liberation war veteran and Bir Protik awardee clarified.
Last night, Fazlur Rahman, freedom fighter and adviser to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia had criticised the amendment.
“They (the interim government) do not uphold spirit of the Liberation War. It does not matter to me what types of ordinances they issue. The Liberation War will forever remain in its rightful place,” Rahman told The Daily Star.
The revised definition, in the ordinance says, those who prepared for war and received training across the villages in the country or in India to participate in the Liberation war between March 26 and December 16, 1971 would be recognised as Bir Muktijoddhas.
The ordinance says, these individuals actively took part in the war against the occupying and invading Pakistani armed forces and their local collaborators.
Among those identified as “local collaborators” are the Razakars, then Muslim League, Jamaat-e-Islami, Nezame Islami and the Peace Committee.
The classification of Muktijuddher Sahajogi (Associates of the Liberation War) had sparked the controversy. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had spent 288 days in Pakistani prison from March 26 onwards, and as per the revised definition was not physically present in the liberation war.
In February this year, Azam had announced an amendment to the National Freedom Fighters Council Act, 2022 to categorise those who fought actively in the Liberation War and those who provided.
Those included in the category of associates were professionals who made significant contributions while residing abroad including shaping world opinion.
Other associates include officials, employees, diplomats, doctors, nurses and others serving under the Mujibnagar government, members of the National Assembly and members of the Provincial Assembly, artists performing in the Bangladesh radio, journalists and also the members of the Swadhin Bangla football team.
“Many people who were not associated with the liberation war had their names included in the list of Muktijoddhas. It was important that we sanitised the list. If it was not inevitable, we would not have engaged in this exercise,” Azam said.
The protest movement that led to the ouster of former Prime Minister and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s daughter Sheikh Hasina last year was sparked by students’ opposition to a quota for descendants of the Muktijoddhas.
Soon after Hasina fled the country last August, the statue of Bangabandhu was demolished. In February, this year, 32, Dhanmandi, the house where Bangabandhu and some of his family members were assassinated nearly 50 years ago was ransacked and set ablaze by a mob.