Pakistan's top rights activist Asma Jahangir has blasted the Pakistan government for demonstrating ‘disproportionately high passion’ against the execution of two war criminals in Bangladesh.

‘The government was only confirming the fact that two men were political agents and working for the cause of Pakistan,’ the country's English daily The Dawn quoted her as saying.

The response sent a message that the government of Pakistan had extraordinary love and affection for the opposition members in Bangladesh than its citizens, Jahangir told reporters at the Supreme Court on Monday, according to a report run by the newspaper yesterday.

‘Equal passion, we hope, will be shown by the government for the people on death row in Pakistan than being hanged elsewhere in the world by denying due process,’ she said.

The government of Pakistan has once again wounded itself in the foot regarding Bangladesh's internal matters. Its foreign ministry has deplored the executions of the war criminals Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid in Bangladesh and has expressed the hope that Dhaka will work on the lines of the spirit of the 1974 tripartite agreement reached by Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

In the eyes of the Pakistani establishment, the spirit is one of turning away from the past and looking to the future. The truth of the matter is that by issuing such a statement, the Pakistani foreign office has simply failed to understand the sentiments of the people of Bangladesh regarding the role of the Pakistan army and its local collaborators during Bangladesh's War of Liberation.

Successive governments in Pakistan have been shy of acknowledging the genocide carried out by Pakistan's soldiers in 1971 and the patent role they played in helping such war criminals as Chowdhury and Mujahid in committing crimes against humanity throughout the course of the war. If it is the spirit of the 1974 agreement that Pakistan speaks of today, we need to get some facts straight.

The government of Bangladesh agreed to sign the tripartite agreement in Delhi on the condition that the 195 Pakistani military officers slated for trial in Dhaka on charges of having committed war crimes would be tried in Islamabad.

It was the Bhutto government which was desperate about seeking the freedom of the officers in question because it believed that if they were tried in Bangladesh, the Pakistan army would remove the newly established civilian government in Islamabad.

The Bhutto administration promised to try the officers once they were back home. In the event, Pakistan reneged on its promise. The spirit of the 1974 agreement did not matter anymore to Pakistan.

Bangladesh on Monday strongly protested Pakistan's remarks on the execution of BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed for their crimes against humanity during Bangladesh's War of Liberation in 1971.

Criticising Pakistan's stance on execution of two war criminals, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday asked the Foreign Ministry to lodge strong protest with Pakistan for its insulting statement.
The Prime Minister gave the instruction at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting held on Monday at Secretariate.

The Foreign Office summoned Pakistan High Commissioner in Bangladesh Shuja Alam on the day and Acting Foreign Secretary Mizanur Rahman handed over a strong-worded protest note to the Pakistan envoy. The Foreign Office protest note asserted that Bangladesh expects Pakistan will act responsibly and it will refrain from continuing such uncalled for statements in future.

By openly taking the side of those convicted persons who committed genocide and crimes against humanity, Pakistan has once again acknowledged its direct involvement and complicity with the mass atrocity crimes done during Bangladesh's War of Liberation in 1971.

Pakistan's unsolicited comments were nothing less than brazen interference in the internal affairs of Bangladesh, which is unacceptable. Pakistan has no moral right to poke its nose into Bangladesh's internal affairs.

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. The trials took solely into consideration the crimes committed by them and had nothing to do with their political identity or affiliation.

Pakistan should in no way make biased, borrowed and unfounded comments about the independent judiciary of a sovereign country.

Responding to the misleading reference by Pakistan to the Agreement of 1974, the High Commissioner was told that the agreement 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.

It was further pointed out that it was rather Bangladesh that consistently advocated for regional peace, harmony, reconciliation and integration.

It was Pakistan which 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, and Pakistan could not escape the historic obligation it owed to the people of Bangladesh as well as to the international community.

Bangladesh deeply regretted continued malicious campaign by Pakistan against the trials of the crimes against humanity and genocide and stated that this would not augur well for the friendly bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan.

From the beginning of the trial of International Crimes Tribunal (ICT, Dhaka), Pakistan reacted over war criminals execution, in 2013, Pakistan formally opposed the execution of Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla and Qamaruzzaman.

Not only that Pakistan Parliament adopted a resolution saying Quader Molla was hanged to death because ‘he was loyal to Pakistan and supported the Pakistan army during the 1971 war’. The Pakistan Parliament said Molla was hanged to death because ‘he was loyal to Pakistan and supported the Pakistan army during the 1971 war’.

The Pakistani foreign office has spoken of moving to the future. It has failed to recall that Pakistan's inability to acknowledge the past has been a stumbling block to the future. Despite making promises, Pakistan has failed to reach an understanding with Bangladesh over the question of a division of assets and liabilities of pre-1971 Pakistan.

Moreover, Pakistan's governments have never shown any inclination, beyond a point, towards taking those Biharis who after 16 December 1971 opted to be citizens of Pakistan. These men calling themselves Pakistanis have been ageing and dying in Bangladesh and yet Pakistan speaks of the spirit of 1974.

Pakistan's relations with Bangladesh have not developed for reasons that have to do with Islamabad's failure on four counts. First, Pakistan has never had the generosity of spirit to admit that its soldiers committed genocide in Bangladesh in 1971.

Second, it broke its promise of trying the 195 criminal officers of its army once they had returned home. Third, Pakistan has carefully steered clear of talks with Bangladesh on the assets and liabilities issue. Fourth, Pakistan has let down its own citizens through refusing to accept the Biharis who opted for it and who it promised would find homes in Pakistan.

And now that Pakistan's government has clearly interfered in Bangladesh's internal affairs by expressing its sympathy for the war criminals, Bangladesh's foreign office must be firm in letting Islamabad know that Pakistan has no business commenting on conditions that its soldiers had a pernicious role in the making of.


Besides, the Jatiya Sangsad should effectively go into adopting a resolution censuring Pakistan over its misleading role regarding Bangladesh since 1971, especially in relation to Islamabad's unabashed concerns over the fate of the war criminals. Dhaka must adopt a hard-nosed approach to Islamabad.