Pak. diplomat's remarks spark protests in Dhaka

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA, NOV. 29. A senior Pakistani diplomat's ``highly objectionable comments'' on Bangladesh's liberation war have provoked angry protests across the country. The Pakistani Deputy High Commissioner, Mr. Irfan Raza, allegedly made disparaging comments about the Awami League, which led the independence struggle, and wanted to know why his country should apologise to Dhaka.

In a swift reaction, the Foreign Office summoned the Pakistani High Commissioner, Mr. Iqbal Ahmed Khan, to the Ministry today to register a protest against Mr. Raza, who, at a seminar at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies on Monday, said, ``the atrocities in this part of Pakistan in 1971 being attributed to the Pakistani army was in fact initiated first by miscreants of the Awami League.'' Angry demonstrators burnt Pakistani flags in Dhaka and elsewhere and newspapers featured Mr. Raza's remarks prominently.

The Foreign Office said the remarks showed ``a total lack of the understanding of the history and ethos of the freedom movement of Bangladesh'', while the Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdus Samad Azad, termed the comments ``provocative and uncalled for''. The Ministry hoped Pakistan would take immediate action to ``arrest the damage done to the bilateral relations''. Mr. Raza said the figure of three million innocent Bangladeshis killed at the hands of the Pakistani army in 1971 was ``wrong'', and quoted a figure of only 23,000 during, ``the sorry events of 1971''. He also referred to the recently published report of Hamudur Rahman Commission in this regard. On the apology sought from Pakistan for its role in the War of Liberation, Mr. Raza asked, ``apology for what? Is it for losing half of Pakistan in 1971?''

Various political parties, socio-cultural organisations and freedom fighters' groups took to the streets demanding Mr. Raza's ``immediate expulsion''. Later, sources said the Government may demand that Islamabad recall Mr. Raza.

Referring to the repatriation of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh, Mr. Raza said Islamabad could not afford to take them home at present. On the assets demanded by Bangladesh, he said a formula could be evolved by the two countries to resolve the issue.

Some of the Bangladeshi participants at the seminar said Mr. Raza, in the year 2000, was representing the brutal military regime of Gen. Yahya Khan as well as the current regime of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, as his comments on such a historical event proved his completely undiplomatic character. Mr. Raza's description of the Awami League freedom fighters has once again strengthened the demand for an apology from Pakistan. ``Mr. Raza is taking part in this seminar as a diplomat, but spoke with a typical Pakistani mentality. The Pakistani army's atrocities on Bangladeshis surpassed the level of the brutality of Nazis in the Second World War,'' said Mr. Abdus Sabur, a senior BISS research fellow. Dr. Dilara Chowdhury, a university professor, said Mr. Raza's mindset was typical of Pakistan's current military regime, not of common Pakistanis.

B. Muralidhar Reddy reports from Islamabad:

A spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Office in Islamabad said ``as the Chief Executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has said, we have to move away from the tragic past and build a strong relationship for which all the goodwill exists between the two countries''. He described the 1971 events as a tragedy for both India and Bangladesh and said people of both the countries have suffered on account of the tragedy.

However, it is not expected to end the controversy triggered by the diplomat. In fact in the last few months, relations between Islamabad and Dhaka have touched a new low and the demand for an apology on the run-up to the events leading to the 1971 war is one of major factors for the strain in the ties.Publication of the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report, that had gone into the circumstances leading to the debacle of the Pakistan Army in 1971 war, in a magazine in India in August this year only helped revive the bad memories and kicked off a furious debate within the Pakistani society on the need for the government to make public contents of the report that has been gathering dust for over 25 years.

Initially, Gen. Musharraf ruled out either its publication or punishment to those named in the report on the plea that much water has flown down the Ganges since the tragic events. However, yielding to pressure from several quarters the military government announced its intention to publish all but one chapter of the Commission report. More than six weeks have passed since the announcement and yet there is no sign of the report. A committee led by the Interior Minister, Maj. Gen. (retd) Moinuddin Haider, is said to be pouring through the contents of the document that remains highly classified. A majority of the retired top brass of the Pakistan army believes that the terms of reference of the Commission were biased and the 1971 debacle had more to do with the failure of political system than the military.

Even as politicians and generals were engaged in a war of words on the contents of the report in the aftermath of its publication in the Indian magazine came the bombshell from the Bangladesh Prime Minister, Mrs. Sheikh Hasina, at the U.N. millennium session. Taking Pakistan by surprise she hit out at the military regimes and suggested that the U.N. follow the pattern of Commonwealth in dealing with those who have come to power by overthrowing elected governments.

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