The government has recognised another 58 artists of the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra ,including the wartime popular satire programme ‘Charampatra’ host MR Akhtar Mukul, filmmaker and actor Shubhash Dutta, singers Timir Nandi and Fakir Alamgir as freedom fighters.
The Liberation War Affairs Ministry issued the order on Tuesday in line with a recent decision by the National Freedom Fighters’ Council.
In November last year, another 108 artists of the wartime radio station were granted freedom fighter statuses.
The latest order takes the number of the 1971 radio artists honoured as freedom fighters by the Awami League administration to 253.
After the Pakistani army launched ‘Operation Searchlight’ on the night of Mar 25, 1971, to crush the Bengalees’ movement of freedom, a group of broadcasters and employees of the Chittagong radio station defected and declared their station as the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra (Independent Bangla Radio Station).
The radio station, with help from defected Bengalee officers of the Pakistan army, played a vital role in the war, broadcasting the Proclamation of Independence.
On Mar 30, the station at Chittagong’s Kalurghat was shut after the Pakistani troops attacked it.
Broadcasters, who were joined by a host of Bengalee artists, then aired programmes and news from several locations in the Indian states of Agartala and Tripura.
After the wartime Bangladesh government took office on Apr 10, the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra started broadcasting from Kolkata boosting the Bengalee morale during the conflict.