case closed our president and yes strong president of that time apologized it in 2002 .job done now stop ask it again and again we cant do it one every 16 dec .
Supping with the enemy
India concerned at Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's overtures to Bangladesh
Comment
plus
Buy article
EVOLVING CHEMISTRY: Musharraf approves of Khaleda's growing alienation from India
During the Bangladeshi liberation war in 1971, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, then a young lieutenant, fought on the western front while his compatriots ravaged the civilians in East Pakistan, killing three million.
Nearly 30 years on, during his three-day visit to Bangladesh beginning July 29, Musharraf expressed "regret", not once but thrice, for the "excesses" committed in the past.
He wrote as much at the National Mausoleum of Liberation War Martyrs at Savar, on the capital's outskirts. He was, however, silent on whether Pakistan would apologise the way Japan had done to Korea for its World War II atrocities. Nor would Pakistan compensate Bangladesh for assets destroyed in 1971, said Musharraf. "If you talk of assets, we have to think of the liabilities we incurred," he told Bangladeshi journalists.
Yet, when Musharraf and his wife Sehba left Dhaka for Colombo, almost the entire Bangladeshi Cabinet showed up at the airport to see off the couple and 18 other members of the delegation. And the welcome arches that lined the route - the same road that Pakistani tanks traversed in 1971 to unleash the bloodbath - wished "eternal friendship" between Pakistan and Bangladesh.
MINOR PROTEST: A red-carpet welcome was combined with rallies against Musharraf's visit
Belying the official ardour was not only the tepid response in the media but also the anti-Musharraf sentiment squeezed to best effect by a strike at the Dhaka University on the second day of the visit. The Opposition Awami League's reaction was confined to vacillation, with the party first deciding to send a delegation to meet the Pakistani President but later revoking the decision.
The trip still left room for nostalgia and bonhomie, but the crucial message was easy to decipher, the flight plan saying it all. Musharraf flew to Dhaka via Sri Lanka avoiding Indian air space, and after the Colombo visit, followed the same route to Beijing.
It was a signal of Islamabad's appreciation of Dhaka's growing alienation from Delhi. The estrangement has been particularly obvious since Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia won last year's general elections, replacing Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Mujibur Rahman who had led his people to victory in 1971 with Indian help.
While the Khaleda Government has carefully avoided overt harshness towards India - it desisted from raising the Kashmir issue at the SAARC summit in Kathmandu despite Pakistani pressure - the prime minister has begun rewriting her country's history.
Mujib's picture has been removed from currency notes and a law was repealed to enable the removal of his portraits from all government buildings, notably foreign missions. More significantly, the conviction of three persons accused in the Mujib assassination case has been put on hold since the BNP's return to power. In Bangladesh's political lexicon, "de-Mujibisation" is an accepted term, and means tweaking a thumb at India.
India's worry
Dhaka continues to provide support and legal assistance to ULFA, BODO groups and NSCN insurgents, who have taken refuge in the country.
Pakistan's ISI may revive its contacts with the Bangladeshi jehadis and open the eastern front against India.
Islamabad is extending its sphere of influence to Dhaka through improved trade ties.
Musharraf, a connoisseur of political semiotics, understands this. He has also taken a leaf from the 1974 Bangladesh visit of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister and military dictator Yahya Khan's cohort in the genocide. Bhutto refused to lay a wreath at the martyrs' memorial for students killed in the 1952 language movement and went to Savar after much persuasion.
The visit was intended to convey that Bangladesh could be a part of the clique of Islamic nations only if it distanced itself from India. Musharraf has gone a step further, patting Bangladesh for its moves on Mujib, but saying it could have done more. He has also offered duty concessions on Bangladeshi import of jute and a proposal to buy 10,000 tonnes of tea. "The two nations have opened a new chapter in bilateral trade," says Bangladeshi Foreign Minister M.M. Khan.
More pragmatic politicians are, however, sceptical about trade with Pakistan at India's expense. Says Kazi Zafarullah, Awami League MP and a minister in the Hasina government: "While our trade with Pakistan is $39 million, several companies in India open individual letters of credit larger than this." For India, the immediate concern is Dhaka's sudden softening towards activists of the ULFA, BODO groups, NSCN and the Tripura Tiger Force who have taken shelter in Bangladesh.
The Khaleda Government has not only provided legal aid to terrorists sought by the Indian security forces but moves are also afoot to facilitate their extended stay. There is a change in the country's political climate too. Last year, the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami won 18 of the 300 National Assembly seats and is a member of the ruling coalition.
The other Islamic party, Jatiya Party of former president H.M. Ershad, also has a dozen members in the Assembly. But even as fundamentalist presence has grown over the years, the civil society remains largely liberal. Another good news for India is that democracy seems to have struck roots in Bangladesh, keeping the army at bay.
This is one reason why Khaleda and her allies' problematic chemistry with India may not translate into hostility. Dhaka has also agreed to allow US company, Unocal, to pipe natural gas to India, an issue the Hasina government had dithered over. The positive signs notwithstanding, Pakistan's cosying up to its one-time foe is reason for India to be cautious.
Read more at:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/...sharraf-overtures-to-bangladesh/1/221198.html
-
