Bangladesh should stop blame game: Pakistan

“Bangladesh should avoid blame game,” a Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman said on Wednesday, a day after Dhaka summoned its High Commissioner and lodged a ‘strong protest’ against the resolutions its National Assembly adopted on Bangladesh’s war crimes trial.

According to the state-owned ‘Radio Pakistan’, in a statement, the spokesman also said that “the two countries should try to strengthen their relations”.

“Bangladesh is our neighbouring Islamic country and Pakistan wants to strengthen ties with it,” the Radio Pakistan reported without detailing in what context the spokesman made the comment.

Dhaka lodged a protest against the resolutions adopted by the Pakistan National Assembly and the Punjab Provincial Assembly after Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla was hanged to death for his crimes against humanity including murder in 1971.

Dhaka also protested the remarks made by Pakistan’s interior minister after Molla’s execution on last Thursday night.

Dhaka conveyed in “unequivocal terms” that the war crimes trial in Bangladesh was “an internal matter” and as such “the uncalled for resolutions on the verdicts of the war crimes trial tantamount to interference in the domestic affairs of Bangladesh”.

Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971 after nine months of bloody war. The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami of which Molla was a leader had sided with Pakistan during the war.

Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami earlier opposed the execution saying, Molla was hanged to death because “he was loyal to Pakistan and supported Pakistan army during the 1971 war”.

The resolution was moved by the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami.

Bangladesh’s youths under the banner of 'Ganajagaran Mancha' marched towards the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka on Wednesday defying police to protest Pakistan's reactions on the war crimes trial.

Dhaka while handing over the “Aide Memoire” to the Pakistan High Commissioner Mian Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi Qureshi on Tuesday reminded him of the genocide committed against the peaceful and innocent Bangladeshi by Pakistan army and its cohorts like war criminal Molla on the midnight of March 25 in 1971 and the reign of terror unleashed in the subsequent months.