Pakistan must say sorry for the atrocities its army committed in Bangladesh in 1971, a minister said in Dhaka.
Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said the Pakistan government must offer an apology for the atrocities its army committed in Bangladesh in 1971 if it wanted good relations with Dhaka, New Age newspaper reported.
"Without removing the irritants, it will be difficult to strengthen trade ties between the two countries," Faruk Khan said after his two-hour meeting with Pakistani envoy Ashraf Qureshi.
Pakistan envoy in Dhaka has said the issue of an apology should be sorted out "through talks".
Qureshi said the question of seeking formal apology by Pakistan "has to be decided through discussion between the two countries", United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency reported.
Bangladesh has also said it will try only its own citizens for "war crimes".
Clarifying Dhaka's position Thursday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said her country would not dispense "Victor's Justice."
The process of holding trial for "war crimes" began last month with the appointment of a three-judge panel assisted by investigators and public prosecutors.
Dhaka says three million people perished during its nine-month freedom movement. Of them, thousands were killed at the behest of then East Pakistan regime of Islamist militia.
Hindustan Times
WIKI
1971 killing of Bengali intellectuals refers to the systematic execution of Bengali pro-liberation intellectuals during the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971 by Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, most notably the extreme right wing Islamist militia groups Al-Badr. Intellectuals were killed during the entire duration (9 months) of the war. However, the largest number of executions took place on 25 March and 14 December, 1971.
1971 Bangladesh atrocities
Beginning with the start of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971 and continuing throughout the Bangladesh War of Independence, there were widespread violations of human rights in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) perpetrated by the Pakistan Army with support from local political and religious militias. Time reported a high U.S. official as saying "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland."[1]
Bangladeshi authorities claim that 3 million people were killed, while the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, an official Pakistan Government investigation, put the figure as low as 26,000 civilian casualties. The international media and reference books in English have also published figures which vary greatly from 200,000 to 3,000,000 for Bangladesh as a whole. A further eight to ten million people fled the country to seek safety in India.
Numerous women were tortured, raped and killed during the war. The exact numbers are not known and are a subject of debate. Bangladeshi sources cite a figure of 200,000 women raped, giving birth to thousands of war-babies. The Pakistan Army also kept numerous Bengali women as sex-slaves inside the Dhaka Cantonment. Most of the girls were captured from Dhaka University and private homes.
There was significant sectarian violence not only perpetrated and encouraged by the Pakistani army, but also by Bengali nationalists against non-Bengali minorities, especially Biharis.
Genocide is the term that is used to describe the event in almost every major publication and newspaper in Bangladesh. Apart from that all international publications on genocide and human rights abuses classify the atrocities of 1971 as an act of genocide by West Pakistan.
0 comments:
Post a Comment