Bangladesh protests ‘interference’ by Pakistan

December 18, 2013 11:10 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 09:26 pm IST - DHAKA

Bangladesh has lodged a strong protest with Pakistan for its reactions to the execution of one of the top war crime convicts Abdul Quader Mollah, requesting Islamabad to refrain from such “interference” in its domestic affairs.

Dhaka also deplored the resolutions adopted by the Pakistan National Assembly and Punjab Provincial Assembly expressing ‘concern’ over Mollah’s capital punishment.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Mian Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi Qureshi to the Foreign Office on Tuesday evening and informed of Dhaka’s unhappiness. Pakistan Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan termed Mollah’s execution “a judicial murder” for supporting Pakistan. Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami has also protested the execution, saying Mollah was hanged to death because “he was loyal to Pakistan and supported the Pakistan army during the 1971 war”.

“Bangladesh finds such remarks completely untrue, biased and absolutely inappropriate,” reads the aide-memoire handed over to the Pakistani high commissioner.

The Jamaat leader was executed on December 12 after he was sentenced to death by Bangladesh’s highest judiciary for crimes against humanity. A Secretary in the Foreign Office, Mustafa Kamal, told the Pakistani envoy that the war crimes trial in Bangladesh was “an internal matter” and as such “the uncalled-for resolutions on the verdicts of the war crimes tribunal is tantamount to interference in the domestic affairs of Bangladesh.”

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