Govt to publish lists of martyred intellectuals by June, JS told

The government will publish a list of martyred intellectuals by June 30 this year as process is on to collect the names of worthy citizens of the soil who were brutally killed by the local collaborators at the fag end of the country's great War of Liberation in 1971, reports BSS.

"Efforts are on to collect the names of the martyred intellectuals as complete list of them is not available at the ministry," said Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque while replying to a written question from treasury bench member M Abdul Latif in parliament.

Responding to another question from Awami League (AL) Lawmaker Chhabi Biswas, the minister informed the House that the government has undertaken a programme to make a computer database to publish the lists of freedom fighters (FFs) through a modern system.

The draft list of the database has been uploaded on the website of the liberation war ministry through national data bank of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), he said and expressed the hope that with the implementation of the database the government would be able to present a flawless list of FFs to the nation.

"With the completion of the database activities, the FFs would be provided certificates with 12 barcodes," he said adding that the lists of actual FFs would be published after a thorough scrutiny.

About the government programmes for the well being of the FFs, he said the pro-liberation government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after assuming office in 2009 had implemented various programmes for the welfare of the valiant sons of the soil.

The programmes included increasing allowances of freedom fighters and numbers of beneficiaries, implementing housing projects for the landless insolvent FFs, building "Muktijodhha Complex Bhaban" at district and upazilla levels, construction of residential cum commercial multistoried building for them on Gajnabi Road in Dhaka, introducing "Bangabandhu stipend" for the offsprings of FFs, increasing service age of all FFs and introducing quota system for the children and grand children of FFs in government, semi-government and autonomous organisations.