15,000 freedom fighters’ video interviews scrapped, no payment to contractor

The Ministry of Liberation War Affairs has cancelled nearly 15,000 video interviews of freedom fighters recorded under a project, citing failure to meet required conditions.

It has been decided that no payment will be made to the contracting firm involved in the work. The video interviews will not be preserved either.

Officials at the ministry said that upon review they found that the videos did not present the “accurate history” of the Liberation War. The footage contains multiple inconsistencies, and the freedom fighters’ experiences were not properly reflected.

They said that if such videos are passed on to future generations, they could create a negative perception of the Liberation War. For this reason, the videos were rejected.

Not only the interviews, but the entire project worth nearly Tk 500 million undertaken during the previous government to preserve the history of the Liberation War has been cancelled.

The project was launched in 2022 during the Awami League government to pass on the experiences of living freedom fighters to future generations. Titled “Birer Konthhe Birgatha” (Heroic Tales in the Voices of Heroes), the project had an allocated cost of Tk 495.7 million.

Under the project, plans were made to produce 80,000 interview-based documentaries of freedom fighters, 80,000 YouTube contents, and 16 documentaries. The target for completion was December 2024. Five months before that deadline, the Awami League government was ousted in a mass uprising.

A review of documents shows that the contract for producing the interview-based documentaries was awarded to a company named Management and Training International Limited (MTI). The contract was signed with the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs on 16 May 2023.

According to the contract, 19 specific questions were to be asked during the interviews. These included which sector a freedom fighter fought in, under whose command they participated in the war, where and how they spent the nine months of the Liberation War, whether they had frontline combat experience, whether they received weapons training, whether they were injured in the war, among other criteria.

Project officials said MTI has so far submitted 27,428 video recordings. Of these, 12,788 videos were submitted during the tenure of the previous government and were preserved at the Bangladesh Film Archive. The remaining 14,640 videos, submitted later, were cancelled during the tenure of the interim government.

Officials associated with the project said the cancelled videos did not follow the prescribed criteria.

Project Director of Birer Konthhe Birgatha, Afrajur Rahman, told Prothom Alo that the contracting firm failed to comply with the standards specified for producing the videos.

He said that although the interim government instructed the contractor to stop producing the videos, the firm did not comply. “As a result, their bills were not paid and the project has been cancelled,” he said.

The Awami League government fell in a student–public uprising on 5 August 2024. The interim government, led by Professor Muhammad Yunus, assumed office three days later on 8 August.

After taking charge as adviser to the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, Farooq-e-Azam instructed the formation of a 10-member committee to verify the interview-based videos. The committee was chaired by Ziauddin Ahmed, Additional Secretary of the ministry.

The committee observed that in many cases the prescribed interview structure was not followed, and that both video and audio quality failed to meet required standards.

At a meeting chaired by Adviser Farooq-e-Azam on 11 September 2024, instructions were given to stop further interviews under the project. The same meeting decided to wrap up the project in June 2025, even if it remained incomplete.

After being informed of this decision, the contracting firm submitted 14,640 videos, prompting the ministry to form a subcommittee to review them. The subcommittee recommended that the videos not be accepted.

Minutes from a subcommittee meeting show that member and freedom fighter Monwar Islam said the recorded videos were of extremely poor quality. He said the contractor failed to present the true history of the Liberation War, and that archiving such videos would create a negative perception among future generations. Paying bills against these videos, he said, would amount to a waste of public money.

Another member, freedom fighter Belayet Hossain, said the narratives in the videos were monotonous and lacked accounts of frontline combat experience. Paying for such work would be misuse of government funds, he said.

Committee member F R Chowdhury, also a freedom fighter, said the videos were not up to standard and did not align with the project’s objectives.

Asked about the future of the cancelled interviews, officials of the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs said the videos will not be preserved at the Film Archive, as they do not reflect the accurate picture of the Liberation War.

A review of documents shows that in the first phase of interviews with 80,000 freedom fighters, the contractor submitted 12,788 interviews during the previous government’s tenure. Against these, the firm was paid Tk 517 million through three bills.

Ministry officials said that after being informed of the project’s cancellation, the contractor hurriedly submitted 14,640 video interviews and demanded payment of Tk 58.5 million. It was at this point that the subcommittee was formed.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Azmal Kabir Rabbi, Deputy Programme Manager of Management and Training International Limited (MTI), said they believe the decision to cancel the videos is deliberate and motivated.

“If our earlier 12,788 interviews were of acceptable quality, how can the later 14,640 suddenly be poor?” he said, calling it a vindictive act by the current interim government.

Rejecting the ministry’s allegations, Azmal Kabir said, “What the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs is saying is fabricated. The previous minister (AKM Mozammel Haque) accepted the videos after reviewing the work.”