Pak reluctant to apologize for '71 war atrocities
DHAKA: Pakistan is reluctant to extend a formal
apology to Bangladesh for the atrocities committed by its troops in East
Pakistan during the 1971 war.
Bangladesh’s demand for an official apology from Pakistan intensified
after the Musharraf regime declassified the Hamoodur Rehman Commission
Report in 2000.
According to the News, the report had accused the Pakistani Army led
by General Yahya Khan of carrying out senseless and wanton killing of
intellectuals, soldiers, civilian officers, businessmen and
industrialists.
The report accused the Pakistan Army of raping a large number of Bangladeshi women as a deliberate act of revenge.
The commission report had accused Khan of being a womaniser and an
alcoholic besides holding General A A K Niazi for a premature surrender
by the Pakistan Army.
Set up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the request of President
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after the 1971 Indo-Pak war, the commission was
headed by the then Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Hamoodur Rehman,
as its chairman.
On the basis of the evidence produced during inquiry, the commission
had named and blamed certain senior commanders for their failure to
discharge their professional duties, the report said.
The commission had further recommended that the Pakistan government
constitute a high-powered Court of Inquiry to investigate these
allegations and to hold trials of those who indulged in these
atrocities.
However, no such Court of Inquiry was ever constituted by any government.
No comments:
Post a Comment