Bangladesh has officially protested the remarks of the spokesperson of Pakistan Foreign Ministry on the executions of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.
High Commissioner of Pakistan to Bangladesh Shuja Alam was summoned yesterday and acting foreign secretary Mizanur Rahman handed over a note verbale to him.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said the statement issued by Islamabad was politically significant as it is the view of the Pakistan government.
The junior minister said no country except Pakistan issued a negative statement about the execution. “We are frustrated but not surprised that Pakistan issued the statement.”
After the execution of war criminal Abdul Quader Molla in 2013, Pakistan parliament adopted a condemnatory resolution, which the Bangladesh government protested through an unofficial document.
The note verbale issued yesterday says: “The unsolicitous comments are nothing less than brazen interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country, which is unacceptable.”
By openly taking the side of those convicted of crimes against humanity and genocide, Pakistan has once again acknowledged its direct involvement and complicity with the mass atrocity committed during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971, it says.
“The government of Bangladesh deeply regrets that despite Bangladesh’s repeated overtures, the malicious campaign by Pakistan against the trials of the crimes against humanity and genocide in Bangladesh is continuing. This does not augur well for the friendly bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan enjoyed over the decades.”
The note says the people of Bangladesh take note of Pakistan’s exhortations about the need for promoting reconciliation, goodwill and harmony.
Bangladesh has consistently advocated for regional peace, harmony, reconciliation and integration, including under the framework of Saarc, it adds.
“This perhaps more than explains why the dominant narrative in Pakistan has not only been on a denial mode about the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Bangladesh, but has also maintained its unrelenting opposition to Bangladesh’s efforts to ensure justice and break the culture of impunity for the crimes committed forty four years ago.”
The note verable says the war criminals were granted all rights available to a defendant.
“The entire judicial process took place in a transparent fashion in an open court, and in pursuance of the relevant provision of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
It continues that the trials took solely into consideration the crimes committed by them and had nothing to do with their political identity or affiliation.
It is unfortunate that while the international community across the board has embraced the trials as an effort to end the culture of impunity, Pakistan is still resorting to sweeping, biased and unfounded comments about the trials, the note says.
Once again, the government and people of Bangladesh strongly feel that Pakistan should in no way make biased, borrowed and unfounded comments about the independent judiciary of a sovereign country, it says.
It requests Pakistan to take serious note of the points raised in it and bring them to the attention of the competent authorities in Pakistan.
“The government of Bangladesh expects that the quarters/authorities in Pakistan would act responsibly and would refrain from continuing such uncalled for statements particularly on Bangladesh’s internal matters.”