58 more Swadhin Bangla Betar artistes get FF status

Staff Correspondent: The Liberation War Affairs Ministry on Tuesday has released a gazette announcing the recognition of 58 more cultural personalities of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra as freedom fighters.

With the latest, the incumbent government accorded a total of 253 wartime radio artistes to the rank of freedom fighters.

The Ministry issued the order in line with a recent decision by the National Freedom Fighters' Council.

According to the gazette notification, the government has recognised 58 more cultural personalities of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra and cultural organisations which were formed during the Liberation War in 1971 as freedom fighters.

Among the artistes who got the recognition as freedom fighters are-- filmmakers MR Akhtar Mukul, Subhash Dutta, Zahurul Haque, Mushtari Shafi, Khandaker Razu Ahmed, singers Fakir Alamgir, Mehzabin Bugum (Queen), Azharul Islam, Abu Bawsher, Sarwar Jahan, Rezwanul Haque, Hazrat Ali Bayati, Monjusri Niyagi, Mrinal Bhattacharya, Probal Chowdhury, Uma Khan, Kalyani Ghosh, Sujit Roy, Gitasri Chowdhury, MKK Siddique, Mozammel Haque, Sajeda Khatun, Amirul Islam Prodhan, Abul Kalam Azad, Muhammad Niaz Uddin, Mosharraf Hossain, Dhirendranath Nomdas, Shamsher Ali Prodhan, Mala Khurram, Shibu Roy, Shukla Bhadra, Enamul Haque, Chittaranjan Bhuiyan, Firoza Chowdhury, instrument artists Subal Dutta, Milon Bhattacharya, Poritosh Kumar Saha, Hazen Chandra Pahari, Abu Bakar Siddique Prodhan, technicians Aminur Rahman, Poritosh Kumar Saha, manuscript writers Ekramul Haque Chowdhury, Mohinuddin Ahmed, recording supervisors AM Shafiul Rahman Dulu, Timir Nandi, event organisers Mezbah Uddin Ahmed, Nazrul Islam (Anu Islam), AM Sharfuzzaman, Foyez Ahmed, tabla player Subrata Sengupta, narrator Dr Dilip Kumar Dhar, sub-editor M Mamun, Poet Niranjan Adhikari (Sobuj Chakrabarti), narrator Shah Salauddin Sajjad and others.

On November 15 last year, 108 artistes of the wartime radio station were granted freedom fighter status. Before this, 87 other artists and staff of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra had already been inducted as freedom fighters, including their medical team who had assisted the war effort.

risingbd/Dhaka/July 11, 2017/Hasan/Amirul