Government publishes list of 10,789 Razakars

Photo: Collected

The government has revealed the list of 10,789 Razakars who opposed the liberation war in 1971 and committed wartime crimes in cooperation with the Pakistani occupation forces.

AKM Mozammel Huq, Minister of Liberation War Affairs, revealed Razakars names at a press conference in his ministry on Sunday at 11:45am.

The names of other joint forces members such as Al-Badr and Al-Shams will be released later.

Over the past 48 years, successive governments did not list the leaders of anti-liberation movements such as Razakar, Al-Badr, and Al-Shams.

In May this year, the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs began the process of planning the Razakar list as approved by the ministry's standing parliamentary committee.

The then government of Bangladesh had passed a law in January 1972 to prosecute the collaborators and war criminals. Then 37,000 collaborators were arrested and sent to prison. Approximately 26,000 were released after a general amnesty was declared.

Justice Sayem and General Ziaur Rahman's government on December 31, 1975, repealed the Collaborators Act and freed the remaining 11,000 prisoners.