The Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday passed the Jatiya Muktijoddha Council (Amendment) Bill 2026, formally identifying three political parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, as collaborators of the occupying Pakistani armed forces during Bangladesh’s 1971 War of Independence.

The bill was placed before the parliament by liberation war affairs minister Ahmed Aazam Khan and was passed with support from the treasury bench.

According to the bill, Bangladesh’s War of Independence is defined 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 state.

Opposing the bill, leader of the opposition Shafiqur Rahman warned that such legislation could divide the nation.

He said that the provision proposed in the bill had not been introduced by earlier leaders after 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 Sheikh Hasina and that the interim government had continued that approach with minor changes.

Referring to the 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, adding that only God truly knows the roles individuals and groups played during the critical time of 1971.

Meanwhile, lawmakers from the National Citizen Party expressed no objection to the bill in written submissions, which were acknowledged by the speaker, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed.