UNB, Dhaka :
Responding to a media report alleging that 16 high officials, including secretaries, have had fake freedom fighter certificates, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque on Tuesday said the government will investigate the matter and take necessary steps if the allegations are found correct.
“The allegations of forging freedom fighter certificates raised in a newspaper report against the secretaries have come to our notice. Steps will be taken if the allegations against them are proved,” he told reporters at his ministry.
Vernacular national daily Prothom Alo on Tuesday carried a report claiming that at least 16 high officials, including secretaries, who did not asserted themselves as freedom fighters during their entry into the civil services have later acquired freedom fighter certificates.
The report also claimed that many of the high officials with presumably fake certificates are trying to use those to avail themselves of various benefits.
The Minister said, they will scrutinise whether any of the officials used fake freedom fighter certificate to extend their terms of employment or take any other advantages.
Earlier on November 6, Health Secretary M Neazuddin Miah and Public Service Commission Secretary AKM Amir Hossain, who had got their jobs extended with fake freedom fighter certificates, went on voluntary retirement.
The two other government officials who lost their freedom fighter certificates are former secretary of Liberation War Affairs Ministry KH Masud Siddiqui, now an OSD, and joint secretary of the ministry Abul Kashem Talukdar, also an OSD.
