Pakistan Apology to Bangladesh
There is a myth that Pakistan has not apologized for the 1971 war. This is not the case. Pakistan apologized and the father of Bangladesh Mujib accepted the apology.
See NY Times report from 1974 below:
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/04/11/archives/pakistan-offers-apology-to-bangladesh-accord-of-foreign-ministers.html
NEW DELHI, April 10—Pakistan apologized today for her army’s violence during the 1971. Bangladesh war. The apology, which coincided with the decision by Bangladesh to drop the proposed war‐crimes trials of 195 Pakistanis, was disclosed with the release of the agreement signed last night by the Foreign Ministers of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The delicate face‐saving compromise was worked out after five days of talks Essentially, Pakistan and Bangladesh gained what they wanted: Pakistan will receive all her prisoners held in captivity since the was including the 195 men Bangladesh wanted to place on trial for murder and rape. Bangladesh, which agreed to drop the trials, earned a public apology, a veiled acknowledgment by Pakistan that some of hers troops had been recklessly violent.
The prisoner issue and the threatened war‐crimes trial were a vivid and constant reminder on the subcontinent of the 1971 India‐Pakistan war, winch resulted in the loss of Palastan’s eastern wing and the creation of Bandladesh.
Accord of Foreign Ministers
The agreement was released simultaneously tonight in New Delhi, Dacca and Islamabad. It was signed by Foreign Ministers Swaran Singh of India, Kamal Hossain of Bangladesh and Aziz Ahmed of Pakistan.
The tone of the agreement was conciliatory. It noted that the Pakistani Government “condemned and deeply regretted any crimes that may have been committed.”
It added that Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan had “appealed to the people of Bangladesh to forgive and forget the mistakes of the past in order to promote reconciliation.”
“Similarly, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh [Sheik Mujibur Rahman had declared with regard to the atrocities and destruction committed in Bangladesh in 1971 that he wanted, the people to forget the past and to make a fresh start,” it said.
In the light of the comments by Pakistan, the agreement said, the Bangladesh Government “had decided not to proceed with the trials as an act of clemency.” It was agreed that the 195 prisoners of war could be repatriated to Pakistan along with the other prisoners.
Admission by Pakistan
Although Pakistan’s apology was, not so straightforward as Bangladesh had demanded, the consensus among Indian and Bangladesh officials was that, Pakistan had plainly acknowledged that some of her soldiers had committed excesses.
Even the fact that Pakistan signed the agreement was seen as a form of apology. The agreement included a statement by Bangladesh that the 195 Pakistan prisoners committed “excesses and manifold crimes” as well as “war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”
The signing of the agreement means that all of the 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war will be home in the next few months.
So far more than 80,000 have been returned to Pakistan. Nearly 117,000 Bengalis stranded in Pakistan have been returned to Bangladesh, which expects to receive a total of 175,000 to 200,000 Bengalis.
The most tenuous postwar problem involves the Bihari minority in Bangladesh. The Biharis are Moslems from the Indian state of Bihar who fled to what was East Pakistan in 1947 when India, with a Hindu majority, and Pakistan, a Moslem nation, achieved independence.
The bulk of Biharis view themselves as Pakistani citizens and say that the Pakistan Government has a legal, if not moral obligation to accept them. More than 500,000 Biharis in Bangladesh want to emigrate to Pakistan.
So far Pakistan has accepted only 100,000, including 27,000 who fled to Nepal after the Bangladesh war. Pakistani officials said privately, before last weekend’s talks in New Delhi, that the Government would accept only 140,000 Biharis.
But under the agreement signed last night, Pakistan indicated that more would be accepted. The four categories of Biharis allowed to emigrate are as follows: those of West Pakistan origin; those with family, links in West Pakistan; former central Government employes, and “hardship cases,” generally meaning those whose lives are in danger in Bangladesh because they supported the Pakistani Army during the war.
The current agreement says that Pakistan must now “upon request, provide reasons why any particular case has been rejected.”
“Any aggrieved applicant,” it says, “could, at any time, seek a review of his application provided he was able to supply new facts or further information to the Government of Pakistan.
This move, according to sources here, will mean an increase in the number of Biharis to be admitted to Pakistan.