Dhaka – Pakistan has once again toll the side of the criminals responsible for killing, rape and other atrocities during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of liberation, giving a sense that the country was still trying to raise their men in independent Bangladesh.

The government of Pakistan in a statement sent condolence message to the family of the hanged war criminal Mir Quasem Ali, 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.

Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is deeply shocked at the execution of Quasem Ali.

It said that Quasem was executed for the “alleged crimes committed before December 1971” and termed the trial as a “flawed judicial process”.

An official of Bangladesh foreign ministry described Pakistan’s reaction “totally unacceptable” and “brazen” interfere in Bangladesh’s internal affairs. Bangladesh will lodge a strong protest against it.

Pakistan in its statement said that the act of suppressing the opposition, through flawed trials, is completely against the spirit of democracy.

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.”

Dhaka found the Islamabad’s claim a distorted version of the agreement.

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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