The first part of the list of collaborators was published on Sunday (Dec 15), containing the names of 10,789 Razakars. Minister for Liberation War Affairs, Mozammel Huq, says: “The final list will be published on Mar 26, 2020. But the ministry is facing difficulty in completing the list since names of collaborators are not coming from many districts.”
Many records have disappeared from the district administrator’s office though the Minister feels that names of collaborators exist in some form or the other.
The ministry says that to finalise list of Razakars, certain strategies will be adopted. Minister for liberation war affairs, MR Huq, has asked for assistance from the secretariat, BG Press authority and common people.
The list of Razakars has been published through the personal initiative of the minister. The offices of 19 district administrators are believed to possess lists of Razakars though the government has not been successful in getting all of them.
To explain this the district administration said that for a long time anti-independence forces were involved in running the country and they removed the lists from the district record rooms.
The Razakars were in Al Badar, Al Shams, Jamaat Islami, Nezame Islam, Muslim League and Jamate Olama and the exact number of collaborators has not been determined as yet.
Head of the Pakistan Army, AK Niazi, wrote in his book of appointing 50,000 members in the Razakar forces who were paid salary and benefits. Identifying 50,000 Razakars after 49 years of independence is not easy.
After independence, efforts were launched to make lists in 20 districts but after the assassination of Bangabandhu on Aug 15, 1975, the work did not progress much.
In subsequent decades, regimes changed and opportunists entered politics. As a result, many Razakars joined cabinets as Ministers and hiding their murky past rode on cars carrying Bangladesh flags.
When Jamaat became an ally of the government, efforts were made to remove names of collaborators from existing lists.
But a large part of the list was printed by BG Press as gazette which is now the main source for the new list.
MR Huq, said: “Led by BNP, Jamaat leaders were engaged in running the country and they removed many documents from district record rooms but district administrators have been ordered to find the records at any cost. The lists exist in some format.”
In the 1970 national election, Pakistan government declared the seats won by AL at the regional election as vacant and held a by-election. Those who won in the by-election were naturally against independence and so, the names of the winners of these dubious polls have also been added to the list of Razakars.
Razakar groups were formed in May, 1971 to support the Pakistani forces. Their work began with 96 pro Pakistani workers at the Ansar Camp in Khulna. On Jun 1, 1971, general Tikka Khan issued an ordinance and transformed Ansars into Razakar force though the leadership of such forces were under pro Pakistani locals. In the end, their number soared to 50,000. The main challenge of the government is to identify them.