A housing project for landless and unemployed freedom fighters has largely benefited influential politicians, senior police officers, bureaucrats and relatives of a former association leader, leaving most intended beneficiaries without a flat.
Senior Awami League leaders and their family members are among those who grabbed flats, documents obtained by TIMES reveal.
Of the 870 flats allocated to the Muktijoddha O Muktijoddha Poribar Kalyan Samiti, only 57 went to freedom fighters and their family members.
Morshedul Alam, former general secretary of the welfare association for freedom fighters and their families, alone secured allocations of 57 flats in his own name and those of his relatives, records show.
The Bijoy Rakeen City project in Dhaka’s Mirpur-15 comprises 1,950 flats, of which 1,080 went to the private developer under a construction agreement. The rest 870 were allocated for freedom fighters.
KM Amir Ali, the association’s current chief executive officer, told TIMES that members paid a one-off amount of Tk93,000 and a registration fee of just Tk30,000 for flats measuring 1,553 and 1,872 square feet respectively.
Each flat now sells for at least Tk1.75 crore, raising questions about how a welfare initiative for financially distressed freedom fighters came to benefit politically connected individuals and their families.
Speaking to TIMES, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman, said, “Those who received flats in this way are illegal occupants because the project was not intended for them and must be evicted. At the same time, those responsible for allocating the flats to them must be held accountable.”
How the project changed course
Muktijoddha O Muktijoddha Poribar Kalyan Samiti was established in 1993 with 15 executive members and 49 general members.
In 1994, then prime minister Khaleda Zia allocated 16.2 acres of land in Mirpur-15 to house landless, unemployed and financially distressed freedom fighters. The Bijoy Rakeen City project was subsequently undertaken on the land.
In 2010, the association signed a 57:43 sharing agreement with private developer Rakeen.
The agreement was signed by the association’s then president, former Additional Inspector General of police AT Ahmedul Haque Chowdhury, and its then general secretary, Morshedul Alam.
Flats were allocated after completion of the project in 2018.
Current association officials allege that Morshedul transferred the land allotment, initially made in the names of genuine members, into his own name but restored it to the association following strong protests.
Association documents show that, after failing to secure the land, Morshedul finalised a new membership list excluding freedom fighters and including relatives, acquaintances, bureaucrats who were not freedom fighters, plus police officers and influential Awami League leaders.
The association now has 516 members, including 334 who are not freedom fighters.
After corruption allegations against the former president and general secretary emerged in an investigation, the Department of Social Services, the registering authority, removed them and appointed an administrator. Police led the probe based on writ petitions filed by deprived freedom fighters in 2025.
It also instructed the association to update and submit its list of genuine freedom fighter members.
The High Court ordered that flats be allocated among genuine freedom fighters.
In 2025, another 238 freedom fighters who had been denied flats filed a writ petition with the High Court, which remains pending.
Politicians, bureaucrats and top cops benefit
Documents obtained from the current administration of the welfare association show that two flats were allocated in the name of Awami League Presidium member Qamrul Islam.
The two sons and one daughter of Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, senior-most member of the Awami League’s presidium, received one flat each, while two flats went to the two sons of veteran Awami League leader Abdur Razzak and one each to the two daughters of former liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque.
Awami League Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim and his brother received four flats. One flat went to the wife of ousted home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and two to the late Abdul Matin Khasru, who served as law minister in the Awami League government in 1996.
Another 40 flats were allocated in the names of 22 Awami League leaders, including former Gopalganj mayor Kazi Liaquat Ali Laku.
The list includes former inspectors general of police Benazir Ahmed, AKM Shahidul Hoque, Nur Mohammad, Naba Bikram Kishore Tripura and Syed Bazlul Karim.
Flats were also allocated in the names of former additional inspectors general Abdul Rahim Khan, AKM Shamsuddin, Matiur Rahman, Kalipada Sarkar, Ali Imam Chowdhury, Abdur Rahim, Nurul Alam, Fazlul Haque and Amir Uddin, along with members of their families.
Another 42 flats were allocated in the names of 24 senior police officers, including Habibur Rahman, who was Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner when the Awami League government was ousted.
Four flats were allocated in the names of former secretary Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan and his family, one to Justice Naima Haider and 21 among 21 secretaries who served under the Awami League government.
Abu Alam did not respond to repeated phone calls seeking comment.
Altogether, 215 flats were allocated to 130 people in these categories, according to the records.
Benefit goes to Association leaders and relatives
The records also reveal substantial allocations to former association leaders and project officials.
Two expatriate daughters of AT Ahmedul Haque, Tania Chowdhury and Tropa Chowdhury, received one each, bringing the family’s total to six.
ATM Khaleduzzaman, head of the project’s engineering team, secured 15 flats for himself and his family members despite not being a freedom fighter.
Former general secretary Morshedul and his relatives were among the largest beneficiaries.
He received two flats in his own name and two in his wife’s name, while four went to his mother-in-law.
Another 10 went to his brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and even a brother-in-law’s wife.
Twelve were allocated to his nephews, nieces and a nephew’s wife, while 14 went to his sisters’ sons and daughters.
However, the document obtained by TIMES mentions Morshedul and his relatives secured a total 59 flats, valued at more than Tk103 crore at current market prices.
Morshedul himself is not a freedom fighter. His national identity card, obtained by TIMES, shows that he was born on 24 March 1966, making him five years old during the 1971 Liberation War.
Tk320.95 crore embezzlement allegations
Morshedul also faces allegations of financial irregularities involving association funds, developer payments and property transactions.
He is accused of embezzling Tk9,60,08,267 by encashing fixed deposit receipts (FDRs) held with Bank Asia and Eastern Bank, among the association’s seven bank accounts.
The association’s new administrator, Ishtiaq Aziz Ulfat, said there’s evidence of embezzlement totalling Tk320,95,08,267 through various irregularities.
According to Ulfat, the transactions included Tk12.10 crore collected from members and deposited in a City Bank account under the Muktijoddha Palli Project and Tk12 crore received as signing money from Rakeen Development.
They also included Tk35 lakh from the sale of two association microbuses and Tk50 lakh from the alleged illegal sale of 10 plots to former Muktijoddha Sangsad chairman Redwan Ahmed in 2002.
Despite repeated attempts over several days, TIMES could not reach Morshedul for comment.
He was arrested on 23 December 2025 in a case involving attacks on students and members of the public who participated in the mass uprising before 5 August but was later released on bail.
Investigation leads to administrator’s appointment
Following allegations against the former president and general secretary of the Muktijoddha O Muktijoddha Poribar Kalyan Samiti, the Department of Social Services formed a three-member investigation committee in 2024.
The investigation uncovered the alleged irregularities, prompting the registering authority to suspend the incumbent committee and appoint an administrator.
On 21 October 2025, the department appointed freedom fighter Ishtiaq Aziz Ulfat as administrator.
Association Chief Executive KM Amir Ali told TIMES, “Efforts are under way to restore the rights of freedom fighters who were denied housing.”
Ulfat said the project had strayed far from its original purpose.
“The initiative was undertaken with the idea of providing housing for freedom fighters who have no residence in Dhaka and nowhere to stay when they come to the capital. But over time, the association deviated from that objective. Instead of allocating flats to genuine freedom fighters, it allocated them to non-freedom fighters, engaging in widespread irregularities and plundering,” he told TIMES.
He said he already recovered possession of 10 flats.
