In Bangladesh, Gen. Musharraf Tries to Bury The Hatchet
 |
| Musharraf, right, with Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia |
By
Md Zeyaul Haque, Special to IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, July 30 (IslamOnline) - Pakistan President General Pervez
Musharraf, currently on the second day of a 3-day tour of Bangladesh,
regretted Pakistan army atrocities in what was then East Pakistan
(today’s Bangladesh) during the civil war of 1971.
After
paying tribute at the monument to Bangladesh’s war heroes on Monday,
July 29, the Pakistani President wrote in the visitor’s book,
“Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pain of the events
in 1971”.
Falling
barely short of an official apology demanded by many Bangladeshis, the
Pakistan president wrote, “The excesses committed during the
unfortunate period are regrettable”.
Although
the focus of the visit is expansion of trade relations between the two
countries, security concerns of the Subcontinent also figured in
President Musharraf’s statement.
He
referred to the tension between India and Pakistan over Kashmir,
saying the Indo-Pak confrontation was a matter of concern for the
region.
With
the President’s regret over 1971 excesses, the Pakistani side has
reason to believe that hurt feelings would be assuaged. However, the
pro-India opposition continued to be agitated over the Pakistan
President’s visit.
Protesters
have been demanding a more straight apology for the “three million
Bangladeshis killed in 1971”. Pakistan says the figures are
exaggerated.
Two
other irritants likely to come up for sorting out would be the status
and future of “Bihari Muslims”, and compensation for $ 4.5 billion
worth of Bangladeshi assets left in Pakistan at the creation of
Bangladesh in 1971.
Bihari
Muslims are Urdu-speaking people (250,000-400,000 in number)
languishing in “displacement camps”. Bihari Muslims had sided with
Pakistan in the 1971 war. Since then Bangladesh has offered them
citizenship, but they refused, insisting on being expatriated to
Pakistan.
Pakistan
has shown inability to absorb them because of the already fragile
ethnic balance in Pakistan. However, 130,000 people from Bangladesh
were resettled in Pakistan over the last three decades.
|
