After decades of hiatus, Bangladesh and Pakistan have made a major step toward a new era of regional cooperation in South Asia, riddled with suspicion, distrust, disrespect, and lack of neighbourliness among the eight countries.
When Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, Chief Advisor of the Interim Government of Bangladesh embraced Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with grins on their faces decided to put the bilateral relations at a new height.
Yunus and Sharif met on the sidelines of the D-8 Summit held by developing nations in Cairo, Egypt.
Shehbaz Sharif called for a strategic relationship between Dhaka and Islamabad and said “We are looking forward to strengthening our relationship with our brother-in-country Bangladesh.”
Dr Yunus expressed his keenness to reactivate the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) as “a top priority.”
“I am a big fan of the idea of SAARC. I keep harping on the issue. I want a summit of SAARC leaders even if it is only for a photo session because that will carry a strong message,” the French news agency AFP quoted Yunus as telling Shehbaz.
The moribund eight-nation SAARC (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) was largely stalled due to arguments between Islamabad and New Delhi.
Bangladesh and Pakistan are two wings of India and are not physically connected by land, rivers, and blue mountains.
The two leaders expressed their desire to resolve outstanding grievances from the brutal birth of Bangladesh in 1971. December is an emotional month for Bangladesh. The day is observed with due solemnity to respect the millions of martyrs at the gigantic National Martyrs Memorial on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.
All organizations, professional bodies, and political parties assemble at dawn to pay homage at the site, except for the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, which allegedly were henchmen and armed militia groups, which rampaged and pillaged thousands of villages during the nine months of liberation war.
On a historic day, Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, Commander of Eastern Command, Pakistan Army and Indian Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora of the Eastern Command, Indian Army flanked by a dozen Mukti Bahini commanders signed a historic ‘instrument of surrender’ in accordance to Geneva Convention.
An estimated 93,000 members of Pakistan’s armed forces, other auxiliary forces, civil officers, and their families surrendered on 16 December after a humiliating defeat, which created an independent Bangladesh.
It was the world’s largest surrender in terms of number of personnel since World War II. The prisoners of war (POWs) were repatriated under the Tripartite Agreement signed in April 1974 by Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India in New Delhi. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Lahore, Pakistan in February 1974 helped resolve the issue of Bangladesh’s recognition intervened by Egypt and Algeria.
According to textbook history, the eastern province of Pakistan (known as East Pakistan) plunged into a bloody civil war after the military junta refused to accept the people’s mandate of the first-ever general elections in 1970.
The martial law government based in Rawalpindi launched a crackdown codenamed ‘Operation Searchlight’ in March 1971 after denying handing down political power to the elected representatives. In hours the Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was detained and the party banned.
When Mujib was picked up by the military in Dhaka, nearly 1,500 political and student leaders, intellectuals, acclaimed poets, senior lawyers, journalists and others were arrested from (western) Pakistan.
Relations between the two countries experienced hiccups during the last five decades. The three military dictators General Ziaur Rahman, General H.M. Ershad and General Moeen U Ahmed went ahead to thaw the bilateral relations with their counterpart military junta in Pakistan, which were never sustainable in the see-saw diplomatic maneuver by the autocratic regimes in both countries.
During the democratic era, the two Begums failed to build up the relationship between Bangladesh and Pakistan. The prestigious Pakistan newspaper The Dawn writes: In the years since the split (independence), Dhaka’s leaders — especially the recently ousted regime of Sheikh Hasina — stayed firmly in the Indian camp, preferring to maintain close ties with New Delhi and keeping Islamabad at arm’s length.
However, the newspaper wrote that ties between the two capitals have thawed ever since a popular uprising toppled Hasina’s government in August, with trade and bilateral relations seeing a marked improvement.
They also agreed to expand and deepen bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest and emphasized the need to align efforts to achieve mutually beneficial development objectives.
Yunus told AFP “The issues (of 1971) have kept coming again and again. Let’s settle those issues for us to move forward.”
The two leaders acknowledged the importance of people-to-people contacts and cultural exchanges including enhanced exchange of artists, sportspersons, academics, students, etc.
Political historian Mohiuddin Ahmad said he does not see how the relationship would defrost the relationship which has deepened scars of the brutal independence war.
It is no denying that in Clause 13 of the Tripartite Agreement, Pakistan agreed to put 195 senior military officers on trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity and rape as a weapon of war.
Unfortunately, because the agreement did not include a guarantee clause, the military dictator and also President, General Ziaul Huq, instead pardoned the accused, which was a serious breach of the Delhi agreement, said the Mukti Bahini veteran Mohiuddin Ahmad.
Sharif said the 1974 Tripartite Agreement involving Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India settled things, “but if there are other outstanding issues,” he would be happy to look into it. Yunus said it would indeed be nice to resolve things “once and for all for the future generations.”
Former Ambassador Humayun Kabir doubts that settling down on the 1971 issue, who is also a liberation war veteran said it would be not easy for the millions of people who joined the guerrillas (Mukti Bahini), those became war refugees, the genocide survivors and the rape victims would be able to forget the nightmare and pardon the perpetrators, who were unfortunately not punished for committing crimes in 1971.
When military usurper General Pervez Musharraf visited Bangladesh in July 2002, he was greeted by a general strike and Dhaka University students fought a pitched battle with riot police in the capital demanding Pakistan should seek an apology for what military troops had committed.
He (Musharraf) regretted the excesses committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence but called for burying the past in the spirit of friendship. Well, his statement was short of apology for the crimes committed during the war and said “Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pains of the events of 1971.”
Perhaps stating only one-word “apology” in public for crimes committed by the Pakistan military during 1971 would melt the ice once and for all, remarks Ambassador Kabir.
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It seems Bangladesh and Pakistan after decades of hiatus have made a major step forward treading into a new era of regional cooperation in South Asia, riddled with suspicion, distrust, disrespect, and lack of neighborliness among the eight countries.
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Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad
