The Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday passed the Jatiya Muktijoddha Council (Amendment) Bill 2026, officially identifying three political parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, as collaborators of the occupying Pakistani armed forces during the War of Independence.
The bill, which turned the Jatiya Muktijoddha Council (Amendment) Ordinance 2025, was placed before the parliament by Liberation War affairs minister Ahmed Aazam Khan and was passed with support from the treasury bench.
The bill defined the War of Independence as the war fought from March 26, 1971 to December 16, 1971 against the invading and occupying Pakistani armed forces and their collaborators—including Razakar, Al-Badr, Al-Shams, the then Muslim League, Jamaat-e-Islami, Nezam-e-Islam, as well as other collaborators and peace committees—in pursuit of establishing equality, human dignity and social justice for the people of Bangladesh as an independent democratic country.
The bill also defined Freedom Fighter making the same identification of the parties and organisations.
Opposing the bill, leader of the opposition in the parliament Shafiqur Rahman, also the Jamaat president, said that such legislation could divide the nation.
He said that the provision proposed in the bill had not been introduced by previous leaders after the independence, including former president Ziaur Rahman and former prime minister Khaleda Zia.
He alleged that the inclusion of these definitions had first been advanced under deposed Sheikh Hasina and continued by the interim government with minor changes.
Referring to the parties and organisations named in the bill, he said that three political groups, the then Muslim League, Jamaat-e-Islami and Nezam-e-Islam, had been mentioned as having links with the Pakistani military during the period, although only the God truly knew the roles individuals and groups played during the ‘critical time of 1971’.
National Citizen Party lawmakers expressed no objection to the bill in written submissions, which were acknowledged by the speaker, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed.
