Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque has warned of legal action against media outlets for what he said running "false report" on the expenses of preparing the now-withheld list of 1971 collaborators.
Several media outlets ran reports Tk 600 million was allocated for the list of 10,789 Bengalis who collaborated with Pakistani occupation forces during the War of Independence.
Three days after the list was released on Dec 15, the ministry on Wednesday (Dec 18) announced that the list has been withheld following huge criticism and it named a number of gazetted Freedom Fighters.
"Media reports saying Tk 600 million was spent to prepare the list of Razakars (1971 collaborators) are untrue. No allocation was sought or made. So, nothing was spent," the Liberation War Affairs Ministry said in a statement on Thursday (Dec 19).
It said Minister Mozammel would sue media outlets unless they retract the reports and issue unconditional apologies by Dec 25.
The minister urged the people concerned to refrain from publishing further untrue reports in future, the statement added.

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In a separate statement, the home ministry also protested the reports on the collaborators' list expenditure and described it 'intentional' saying Minister Assaduzzaman Khan did not speak to the media over the matter.
It said nearly 100 members of the media attended the home ministry's briefing on Wednesday (Dec 18), when Khan did not say anything over the cost of preparing the list.
Several media published reports on the matter, which is unexpected, the statement read.