Hasina protests Pak remarks on war crimes trial

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday dismissed as “unacceptable” Pakistan’s criticism of Bangladesh’s 1971 war crimes trial and execution of two top opposition leaders even as the government summoned Islamabad’s envoy here to lodge a strong protest.

“It (Pakistan reaction) is not acceptable,” Hasina said, a day after Islamabad issued a statement expressing its deep anguish over the executions of two top opposition leaders for crimes against humanity.

The Daily Star quoted the prime minister as directing the foreign ministry to lodge a “strong protest” as “Pakistan has interfered in our domestic affairs in the past too”.

The foreign office, meanwhile, said it summoned Pakistani envoy here to register its protest over Pakistan’s unacceptable remarks over the executions. “We have summoned Pakistani High Commissioner Shuja Alam on Monday and protested in strongest words,” acting Foreign Secretary Mizanur Rahman said.

“You have seen the Pakistani statement which is entirely unacceptable,” Rahman said after the meeting.

Pakistan foreign ministry on Sunday issued the statement, voicing “deep concern and anguish” over the execution of Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary-General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, 67, and key-opposition BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, 66. Several senior ministers of Hasina’s government, politicians and 1971 veterans also expressed their anguish over Pakistan’s comments.

“Pakistan showed audacity just as convicts like Salauddin Quader Chowdhury did until their deaths,” said Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon said in a statement.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam told newsmen that Pakistan “has no right to make any comments about internal issues of Bangladesh”. This was the third occasion when Bangladesh summoned Pakistani envoy after it initiated a belted process in 2010 to expose to justice the 1971 war criminals.

Bangladesh, which won its independence from Pakistan after a nine-month long Liberation War 44 years ago, has in the past several decades repeatedly demanded an apology from Islamabad for the atrocities carried out by its troops in 1971. Officially three million people were killed during the nine-month long war against Pakistan. Referring to Pakistani criticism that “there is a need for reconciliation in Bangladesh in accordance with the spirit of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh Agreement of 9th April 1974”, the Bangladesh foreign ministry said that it is Pakistan which is not honouring the agreement. “It is Pakistan that has systematically failed in its obligation to bring to justice those of its nationals identified and held responsible for committing mass atrocity crimes in 1971,” read the text of the protest note handed down to Islamabad’s envoy in Dhaka. The note further said: “Pakistan could not escape the historic obligation it owed to the people of Bangladesh as well as to the international community”.

The note said “the essential spirit of the agreement was to create an environment of good neighbourliness and peaceful co-existence for ushering in long term stability and shared prosperity in the region”.

“It never implied that the masterminds and perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide would continue to enjoy impunity and eschew the course of justice,” the note added. Refuting Pakistan’s labelling the judicial process as “flawed trials”, the note reiterated that the verdicts against the convicted individuals had been handed down through an “independent, sound, fair, impartial and transparent judicial process, and without any political interference”.