B'desh ask Pak to apologize for 1971 â€˜crimesâ€™, Islamabad says 'No'

Dhaka on May 13 asked Pakistan to apologize formally for atrocities committed by its army during the Bangladesh’s bloody liberation struggle in 1971. A day later (May 14) came the reply from Islamabad. It was a blunt ‘No’.

Bangladeshi officials have said 3m people were killed during the fight for independence for what was then East Pakistan, and the new govt in Dhaka has vowed to try suspected war criminals. A private Dhaka-based group that has investigated the crimes has named 1,775 people, including Pakistani generals and local Islamists allied with Pakistan, as war crime suspects

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni in a meeting with Pakistan High Commissioner Alamgir Bashar Khan Babar in Dhaka on May 13 had said that Pakistan should formally apologize for the Bangladeshis killed in 1971, share assets and repatriate Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh. He also sought a ‘formal apology by Pakistan for the genocide in 1971’.

Swiftly came the reply from Islamabad the following day, May 14. Rejecting the demand, Pakistan Foreign Office advised Dhaka to move ahead with ties, instead of getting “frozen in time”.

“As far as Pakistan is concerned, this matter stands resolved under the April 9, 1974 agreement,” spokesman Abdul Basit said at a weekly media briefing.

Under the 1974 agreement, Pakistan had regretted the incidents. It was not formal apology though. In 2002, the then president Pervez Musharraf had expressed regrets over the 1971 incidents during his visit to Bangladesh.

On its part, Hasina government is going ahead with its plans to try the 1971 criminals. It has sought UN help for the trial.

The Pak spokesman said his country valued its relations with Bangladesh and preferred to move forward. “We have conveyed this to our friends in Bangladesh.”

He said “let bygones be bygones” and expressed the hope that relations would not become hostage to the past.

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