The interim government of Bangladesh, led by Mohammad Yunus, has issued a new ordinance, redefining the term freedom fighter (Bir Muktijodha). The status of freedom fighter has been withdrawn from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and more than 400 other prominent persons of the 1971 liberation struggle of the country. The ordinance published by the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Ministry of Law said that political leaders like Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, M. Mansoor Ali and AHM Kamaruzamam will no longer be officially recognized as freedom fighters. Instead, they will now be classified as an associate of Mukti Sangram.
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According to the new ordinance, who will be freedom fighters?
Bir Mukti Warrior is the person who has either trained within the country between March 26 and December 16, 1971 or has come to India to cross the border to join the training camps. His clear intention was to actively participate in the war for freedom against the occupied Pakistani forces. To be eligible, individuals must be members of civil or armed forces of the minimum age set by the government during the war period who have joined the war directly. The ordinance also confirmed that women who suffer torture by the Pakistani Army and their associates (Birrangana), as well as doctors, nurses and medical workers who treat the injured fighters in regional hospitals, will be recognized as freedom fighters.
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Mujibur Rahman’s name was removed from Bangladeshi currency
This is not the first time that Younus -led interim government has tried to eradicate Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from the history of the country. His daughter Sheikh Hasina’s government was demolished after protests lasted for months last year. The central bank of the country announced the issue of newly designed bank notes, which would have natural landscape and photographs of traditional sites in place of the portrait of the country’s founding father. Till now, all bank notes were printed on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s portrait, who gave Bangladesh freedom from Pakistan in 1971 and was murdered in a military coup after four years.