Bangladesh Freedom Fighter Welfare Trust


Bangladesh Freedom Fighters Welfare Trust or Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust, is government owned and operated trust in Bangladesh established to look after the interest of former Mukti Bahini members and others who fought for Bangladesh in the Bangladesh Liberation war and their family members.

History

It was established in September 1972. It owns a number of companies which generate include Tabani Beverage Company, Eastern Cables Industries Limited, Multiple Juice Concentrate Plant, Mimi Chocolate Limited, and Model Engineering Works. It owns four movie theatre, which are Gulistan, Naz, Moon, and Delwar Pictures. It also owns Gulistan Films Corporation and Durbar Advertising and Publications, Purnima Filling and Services Station. It also receives an annual 160 million taka from the government. According to the act which established the trust a freedom fighter is "person who served as a member of any force engaged in the war of liberation but shall not include the serving members of the defence services, police or the civil armed forces, or any government pensioner, or any other person having any regular source of income". Tabani Beverage Company is a bottler of Coca-Cola in Bangladesh. Between 1988 and 1989 it made a list of freedom fighters in Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh in the 1970s handed over the management of tanneries to the trust and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation. In 2018, the Trust closed down all of the industries it owned as corruption had made them unsustainable.