Many recognised freedom fighters are now allegedly facing harassment and humiliation as they have been asked to face further verifications to confirm their status after the recent digital database of freedom fighters was developed with faulty data entries by Upazila Nirbahi Officer offices.
Such FFs said that many UNO offices, while entering their data in the computer, did not mention their recognition numbers from government-approved documents like Lal Mukti Barta and the list sent by the Indian government after the independence.
Seeing their names on the list of those freedom fighters who are required to go through further verifications beginning on December 19, they said that they faced humiliation in society and had to visit various offices amid the COVID-19 prevalence at a time when the government has already cancelled the status of many freedom fighters as fake ones following investigations.
Many well-known freedom fighters said that they did not get their monthly allowances disbursed by the liberation war affairs ministry after September due to flawed or incomplete information on the database.
The government has decided to further verify the authenticity of an estimated 42,000 freedom fighters whose names were notified in government gazettes on different occasions without a mandatory verification by the Jatiya Muktijoddha Council after it was formed in 2002.
Ruling Awami League lawmaker from the Lalmonirhat-1 constituency Md Motahar Hossain on Saturday told New Age that the Hatibandha UNO office last week asked 26 freedom fighters in the upazila for further verifications, of whom 25 were included in Lal Muktibarta and the Indian government list.
‘For inefficiencies in UNO offices many recognised freedom fighters are going through an ordeal and I conveyed the problem to liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Huq on Thursday,’ said Motahar, also a member of the Jatiya Muktijoddha Council.
Former Jatiya Party lawmaker from the Sirajganj-5 constituency Shahidul Islam Khan said that he felt embarrassed after he found his name on the list of those freedom fighters required to pass further verifications.
‘I was humiliated when my name appeared on the list even though I was listed in Lal Muktibarta,’ said Shahidul, a former assistant attorney general.
Liberation war affairs ministry officials admitted that many UNO offices did not computerise names of many freedom fighters with all the details even though the government paid the offices Tk 16 for listing each name for the compilation of a database of the freedom fighters from various existing lists.
They said that an estimated 21,000 freedom fighters of the total 1.92 lakh did not get their allowances after September and the UNOs concerned were asked to explain why their names were excluded from the digital database.
Minister Mozammel said on Thursday that instructions had been passed that those included in Lal Muktibarta or the Indian government list would need no further verifications.
‘But those who will be found to have enjoyed the benefits entitled to freedom fighters with forged documents will have to refund the money they have taken so far and will face criminal charges,’ he said.
Each freedom fighter receives Tk 12,000 as monthly allowance, Tk 10,000 for each of the two eids, Tk 20,000 as Victory Day allowance and Tk 5,000 as Pahela Baishakh allowance.
