Mohadevpur Dorpan, Q, M, Sayeed Tito, Naogaon, 27 December 2019 :

Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque has said that it was unwise of him to have the Razakar list published without proper scrutiny.

He was speaking to the press on the occasion of the inauguration of 11 upazila freedom fighters complexes in Naogaon on Thursday.

“I have apologized before and I am apologizing again for the Razakar list. Publishing the list sent by the Home Ministry without properly checking it was very unwise on my part.

“But that does not mean a Razakar list will not be published in the future. There surely will be a list of those who collaborated with the Pakistani forces during the Liberation War,” he added.

Stating that information for the fresh list would be collected from committees formed in the villages, he said: “The names of those who have been actual Razakars will be included in that list.

“Mistakes can happen when you do something but through strict monitoring we will ensure that whatever has transpired before is not repeated.”

Among others, Naogaon Deputy Commissioner Harun Ur Rashid, Naogaon 2 Shahiduzzaman Sarker, Naogaon 3 MP Salim Uddin Tarafdar, Naogaon SP Abdul Mannan Mia, freedom fighter Harun Ul Rashid were present at the program.

In the face of widespread criticism of the Razakar list from all quarters, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on December 18 directed the authorities concerned to make corrections in the list after proper scrutiny.

On December 15, the Liberation War Affairs Ministry published the first instalment of the list containing the names and addresses of 10,789 Razakars who collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces during the 1971 Liberation War.

However, the list apparently contained the names of several freedom fighters and pro-liberation individuals. There are also reports that the list contains the names of many individuals several times over.

The scandal came to light when members of some of the families of martyrs, including one from the Hindu community, took to social media to vent their anger and sense of humiliation over the matter, a day after the list was published.

Against the background of the public outrage, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, whose offices were responsible for preparing the list, traded blame over the lapses in it.