Of the 870 flats meant for impoverished freedom fighters at the Bijoy Rakeen City housing project, 766 are occupied by influential individuals who did not participate in the War of Independence, alleged freedom fighter Abu Md Ishtiaq Aziz Ulfat, administrator of the Muktijoddha O Muktijoddha Poribar Kalyan Samiti, a welfare association, on Wednesday.
At a press conference at the National Press Club in the capital Dhaka, Ishtiaq said, ‘The fascist Awami League regime facilitated illegal allocations of the flats to the party leaders, police officers and senior government officials, instead of genuine freedom fighters.’
The authoritarian AL regime was ousted on August 5, 2024, in the wake of a mass uprising.
At the press conference, Ishtiaq also revealed other large-scale irregularities, corruption, and abuse of power in the Bijoy Rakeen City housing project at Mirpur in the capital.
In 1994, the then prime minister Khaleda Zia allocated 16.2 acres of land at Block-D in the Mirpur-14 area to provide housing for marginalised freedom fighters, he said.
Mentioning that the Bijoy Rakeen City project was initiated on this land, he said that nearly 1,950 flats were built under the entire project, while 870 of those were designated for freedom fighters.
Citing that about 95 per cent of the freedom fighters were poor, and grassroots, working people, he claimed that freedom fighters were neglected after the country’s independence, and they still were facing negligence.
Alleging that Awami League leaders distorted the history of the independence war, he said, ‘Awami League tried to erase the names of Maulana Bhashani, Suhrawardy and Ziaur Rahman from the history of Bangladesh’s emergence. In the same way, they built flats on land allocated for marginalised freedom fighters and handed those over to non-freedom fighters.’
Citing that the welfare association’s previous president, former additional inspector general of police AT Ahmedul Haque Chowdhury, abused his administrative authority to sign a 57–43 per cent share-based agreement with the private Rakeen Development Company.
‘As a result, the freedom fighters’ ownership over the association’s land was undermined, and the project eventually turned into a commercial housing venture,’ said Ishtiaq, also the president of Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal.
The association administrator claimed that of the current 516 members of the association, 334 were not genuine freedom fighters.
He also said that an aggrieved group of freedom fighters filed a case with the High Court over the ‘illegal possession’ of the flats by non-freedom fighters.
Other freedom fighters and members of the welfare association were present at the press conference.
From the press conference, demands were made for a comprehensive investigation into all allocations and contracts related to the Bijoy Rakeen City project, cancellation of flat allocations to non-freedom fighters and illegal beneficiaries, verification of the list of genuine freedom fighters, and legal action against those responsible.
