Dhaka – Dhaka on Sunday protested a statement issued by Islamabad over the execution of a Jamaat-e-Islami leader for crimes committed during the 1971 war between Bangladesh and Pakistan that brought Bangladesh into being as an Independent country.

Dhaka termed the Islamabad’s statement over the execution of Mir Quasem Ali, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party that opposed creation of Bangladesh, as interference into domestic affairs of a country.

Bangladesh foreign ministry called the Pakistan acting High Commissioner in Dhaka Samina Mehtab to lodge the protest. Additional Foreign Secretary Kamrul Ahsan conveyed the message to the Pakistani envoy.

Asked for comment, the Pakistani diplomat while leaving the foreign ministry told reporters that she had nothing much to say.

But Ahsan said the statement Pakistan foreign ministry issued Saturday over Mir Quasem Ali’s execution is a direct interference into the domestic affairs of Bangladesh.

Pakistan has once again taken the side of the criminals responsible for killing, rape and other atrocities during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of liberation.

The country gave a sense that it was harboring agents in independent Bangladesh.

In a statement, it sent condolence message to the family of the hanged war criminal Mir Quasem, a financier of the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

It also did the same in the past execution of war crimes convicts Matiur Rahman Nizami, Abdul Kader Molla, Kamaruzzaman, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.

The statement said it was deeply shocked at the execution of Quasem Ali claiming that the trial was flawed

The act of suppressing the opposition, through flawed trials, is completely against the spirit of democracy, it added.

It said, ever-since the beginning of the trials, several international organizations, human rights groups, and international legal figures have raised objections to the court proceedings, especially regarding fairness and transparency, as well as harassment of lawyers and witnesses representing the accused, added the statement.

It said the government of Bangladesh should “uphold its commitment, as per the Tripartite Agreement of 1974, wherein it decided not to proceed with the trials as an act of clemency.”

Bangladesh described the trial of war criminals as people’s demand and Pakistan statement is totally against the “national spirit”.

Pakistan also offered deepest condolences to the bereaved family members of executed war criminal Mir Quasem.

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