Lawmakers have come down heavily on Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque in the parliament over the flawed list of Razakars, the Bengalis who collaborated with the Pakistani forces in 1971.
“The Liberation War affairs ministry published the list as it was [forwarded by the ministrt]. Since the ministry did not prepare the list, the home ministry can take action against negligence of anyone, if any,” Minister Mozammel told the House on Thursday (Jan 16).
Mozammel made the remarks in reply to a question from ruling Awami League MP Md Faridul Haque Khan from Jamalpur-2.
Another ruling party MP Mouazzam Hossain Ratan said, “The Liberation War affairs ministry cannot directly say it has no responsibility [for publishing a faulty list]. It’s the responsibility of this ministry to verify the list, no matter from where it was collected.”
Sunamganj-1 MP Ratan came up with the remark taking floor to make a supplementary question to the Mozammel.
Ratan said the government’s role being questioned due inconsistency in some cases regarding the list. “We, the pro-Liberation force, have been hurt extremely … even the names of real Razakars were not there in the list.”
He later questioned whether the list of authentic Razakars would be disclosed before the Mar 26, whene Bangladesh celebrates Independence Day.
In reply, minister Mozammel said they earlier withdrew the list with regret as it contained errors.
“We’ll publish the list in the future after a thorough scrutiny and taking cooperation from all quarters to check the recurrence of errors,” said Mozammel.
Another treasury bench MP Rafiqul Islam said the minister will have to take responsibility as his ministry published the list.
He said the minister could not collect the list of authentic collaborators yet. “I think he won’t be able to do it either because I have been hearing the same thing from him for the last five years,” he said.
Gonoforum's Sultan Muhammed Mansur Ahmed urged the minister not to create any division in the country during the Mujib Year by publishing the list of collaborators.
In reply, Mozammel said he did not get any question rather advice from Mansur. “I’ll consider his advice.”