War crimes trial may leave ties frosty: Pakistan
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Rohan Ziad, bdnews24.com correspondent, writes from Islamabad
Islamabad, June 7 (bdnews24.com)—Pakistan has warned Bangladesh of frosty relations if Dhaka presses on with the planned war crimes trial, a senior Pakistani foreign ministry official said.
"We hope nothing would be done to create a slowdown in our relation," Masood Khalid, the additional secretary for Asia Pacific, told the visiting Bangladeshi media delegation on Saturday afternoon.
However, trying war criminals was totally an "internal matter of Bangladesh", he said, speaking on the country's reaction to Bangladesh's latest endeavour to hold crimes against humanity during Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.
He said that the process would cast a shadow between the countries.
"We should not remain frozen in time and look forward."
Touching on the atrocities happened during 1971, Khalid said he felt it was a sad chapter.
The ruling Awami League, which led the war, has been demanding apology for the killing of three million Bangladeshis and rape of 300,000 women by the Pakistan army during the bloody nine-month war.
Foreign minister Dipu Moni told Pakistan high commissioner Alamgir Bashar Khan Babar on May 12 that his country must resolve the issue of apologising for the killings of three million people in Bangladesh.
Pakistan does not recognise the killing of three million Bangladeshis, though. Its former president Gen Parvez Musharraf during his trip to Dhaka in July 2002 apologised to Bangladesh for "developments in 1971".
Bangladesh on May 15 reiterated that Pakistan must apologise for the genocide it had committed in 1971, a day after a Pakistan foreign ministry official urged Dhaka to "let bygones be bygones".
Trade and peace
A direct shipping line between the two countries and complicacies in banking channels were primarily hindering improved trade relations, according to him.
He stressed mechanisms like Free Trade Agreement and technical cooperation and assistance.
On regional security issues, Khalid said that peace was extremely important for Pakistan to go ahead.
He said Pakistan's location covered South Asia, Central Asia and Middle East which offered both challenges and opportunities.
"The region is now a hot bed for power play."
Peace and stability in South Asia is strategically important for Pakistan, he added.
"We are making effort to move forward based on equity, fairness and justice", he said on Pakistan's relations with India.
Khalid mentioned that relations with neighbouring Afghanistan have improved a lot during the last one year.
"We have signed a pact regarding investment for infrastructures."
The terrorism in Pakistan is a spill-over of the Afghan war, said Khalid.
The dangerous rise of al-Qaeda, Taliban and other sub-groups have been the burning issue in Pakistan.
The foreign affairs official also slammed the western media for what he said was its biased coverage of the Swat military operations.
Speaking on regional cooperation for counter-terrorism, he said that Pakistan was awaiting a response from Bangladesh on a bilateral memorandum of understanding, proposed in 2005.
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:: Story ::
** War crimes trial may leave ties frosty: Pakistan **
Pakistan has warned Bangladesh of frosty relations if Dhaka presses on with the planned war crimes trial, a senior Pakistani foreign ministry official said. <b>Rohan Ziad reports from Islamabad </b>
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