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            Pakistan rejects Bangladesh ’71 incidents apology

By Baqir Sajjad Syed

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni talks during a news conference in Dhaka. –Reuters Photo

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday rejected Bangladesh Foreign Minister’s demand for apology over alleged 1971 atrocities asking Dhaka to move ahead with ties instead of getting 'frozen in time'.

'As far as Pakistan is concerned, this matter stands resolved under the 9 April 1974 Tripartite Agreement,' Foreign Office Spokesman Mr Abdul Basit said at the weekly media briefing.

Under the 1974 agreement Pakistan had regretted the incidents that took place in 1971, but did not formally apologise. In 2002 then President Musharraf had also expressed regrets for the 1971 incidents during his visit to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni had told Pakistan High Commissioner Alamgir Bashar Khan Babar that Pakistan needed to apologise for the Bangladeshis killed in 1971, share assets and repatriate stranded Pakistanis, when the envoy called on her to condole over the death of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s husband Dr M A Wazed Miah. 
The Bangladesh government is also reportedly seeking UN assistance for trial of what it calls 1971 war criminals and there are indications in the diplomatic circles that this issue would blow up into a full fledged diplomatic row between Islamabad and Dhaka.The spokesman at the media briefing insisted that Pakistan valued its relations with Bangladesh and preferred to move forward. 'We have conveyed this to our friends in Bangladesh.'

He further said 'let bygones be bygones' and hoped that the relations between the two countries would not become hostage to the past

Dawn:Thursady May 14, 2009