Online Desk: Former minister and BNP Vice Chairman Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed on Thursday alleged that the ruling Awami League is responsible for distorting the history of the country’s great liberation war.

He said this after attending a meeting of BNP’s committee for celebrating the upcoming Independence Day in which he was made the convenor.

Major Hafiz said the independence achieved in 1971 is a matter of pride for the Banglee nation. He regretted that 53 years after the independence the history of liberation war is being made debatable.

The history of liberation war is being written every day like a story and a poem, he said.

During the war the number of freedom fighters was 80,000 or 100, 000, but now “we are seeing about 250, 000 are getting allowance along with other benefits as freedom fighters, Hafiz said.

People are being kept in dark about how the war of independence had started, he added.

The armed war of independence started after 25 March crackdown by Pakistani military. The people of the country had sacrificed their lives to bring the independence. The ruling AL doesn’t talk about it because they have no contribution in the war of independence, he claimed.

Major Zia’s declaration of independence influenced the people from every corner to join the liberation war, he said. World community came to know after Zia’s announcement. But the ruling quarter jokes about Zia’s declaration saying that “guard rang the bell”, Hafiz said.

The BNP vice-chairman said Major Zia was one of the lionhearted freedom fighters and also sector commander who led the war staying in the battle field while other sector commanders stayed in India.

But the AL portrays him as the agent of Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) to misguide the young generation, he said.

Major Hafiz alleged that the war of independence is being distorted as the AL claims all credit ignoring the contribution hundreds of thousands of students, youth and solders.

Some political parties who had no contribution in Bangladesh war of independence have hijacked the independence and all achievements, he added.