The first installment of the list containing the details of 10,789 collaborators has included the name of several gazetted freedom fighters (FFs) drawing anger and resentment from their relatives and the fellow FFs.
At a media call on Sunday (Dec 15), Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque unveiled the name of the Razakars who helped the Pakistani military at the field level during the 1971 Liberation War.
As the list contains several FFs' names, relatives and fellow FFs expressed anger over the government initiative what they termed an "utter disgrace" to the nation's greatest heroes.
Liberation War researchers are shocked at how it happened and demanded an explanation while minister Mozammel urged people not to be misled over finding similar names in the list.
"People can have similar names. Why on earth would the known FFs be enlisted?", Mozammel argued.
Relatives of FFs took social media to vent their anger following the publication of the Razakars' list.
"Today, I got the reward for the selfless work for people. Thanks to Awami League. Names of my father and my grandmother have come in the just-published list of the Razakars," Socialist Party of Bangladesh leaders Manisha Chakraborty wrote on Facebook.
"My father Advocate Tapan Kr. Chakroborty is a gazetted freedom fighter (Serial No. 112, Page No. 8112). He draws the FF allowance regularly. Today, his name came at the 65th place in the list of Razakars."
Manisha went saying that her grandfather Sudhiur Kr. was picked up by the Pakistan army from home and then killed. He, too, was recognized as a freedom fighter.
"The name of his wife Usha Rani Chakraborty, my grandmother, has been appeared at the 45th place in the list," she wrote in social media.
Manisha herself confirmed Bangla Tribune the inclusion of her father's name in the Dec 15 list saying "It's politically-motivated."
She said that a procession was brought out near her office on Monday. "The protesters called us collaborators and demanded us to leave the country."
The government once recognized her father as a FF then again they made him a collaborator, Manisha lamented.
Liberation War researchers, however, said no collaborators came from the Hindu families.
When asked on the inclusion of Manisha's relatives in the collaborator list, researcher Dr M Hasan said such acts would linger the preparation of the list and draw controversy.
Explaining how it possibly happened Hasan said the War Crimes Fact Finding Committee prepared a list of the collaborators in 2008.
When the committee outsourced people to translate the English version of the list into Bangla, those people added several names those were not in the main list, he added.
Hasan said, "At the last moment of preparing the new list, I met the people concerned and requested them to first publish the name of the collaborators who were named in the gazette after the war.
"Then the list of the people whose name had come in the Daily Sangram should be released, followed the name of the peace committees' members," he added.
Hasan urged the authorities concern to "admit the mistake [if there any] and then fix it."
Besides, as many as three lawyers -- Advocate Golam Arif, Advocate Mohsin and Advocate Abdus Salam -- have been named in the Razakar's list in Rajshahi drawing flak from the FFs.
Among them, Advocate Golam Arif, known as Ghulam Arieff Tipoo, is the chief prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) that deals with the war crimes committed during the War of Independence in 1971.
"I am shocked or surprised. How come such a thing can happen? Is there any other lawyer named Golam Arif in Rajshahi?," asked the ICT chief prosecutor.
Golam Arif said he, too, stunned seeing the name fellow lawyers Mohsin and Salam. "However, the father's names haven't been mention with these three names," he added.
FFs from Rajshahi were, too, surprised. "Advocate Mohsin is an AL leader and was in charge of a camp [during the War]. Advocate Salam and Advocate Golam Arif, all are pro-liberation people and their political activities are known to all," said FF Tauyebur Rahman.
Not mentioning their fathers' names in the list may make things worse, Rahman warned.
When asked Minister Mozammel ruled out the inclusion of the ICT chief prosecutor in the Razakar's list.
"No, no, it may be another Golam Arif. Don't be misled seeing a similar name," he said.
President of Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee Shahriar Kabir rejected the just-published list terming it "prepared by the bureaucrats."
"Confusion will arise over the inclusion of Golam Arif without the father's name," warned Kabir before adding they are gathering the details.
Venting ager, Leftist leader Manisha demanded the new list be revoked, saying "It has lost the moral ground."
Ridy Rubi from Barguna also took the social media to reveal another FF whose name came up in the Sunday list.
According to her, the name of late freedom fighter Majibol Haque, a member of her family, is in the Razakar's list.
"Even his [Majibal] nickname matches. There is no doubt it's him. He was the district Sangram Parishad leader and AL president," Rubi told Bangla Tribune.
"Everyone from Barguna's Patharghata knows him. Fortunately, he passes away. If he had lived till today to see what happened he would have been hurt," she lamented.
Minister Mozammel, however, said otherwise claiming they prepared no new list.
"Those names were found in the government archives have been enlisted," he added.