Pakistan summoned on Thursday the acting high commissioner of Bangladesh over the hanging of top opposition leader Motiur Rahman Nizami in the country on Tuesday.
The commissioner was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Director General (South Asia and SAARC) and “lodged strong protest at the unfortunate hanging of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)’s head in the country.”
Motiur Rahman Nizami, 71, was hanged at a Dhaka prison after he refused to appeal for clemency against the death sentence handed down following his conviction for genocide and other war crimes during the 1971 war.
The execution was made on the alleged crimes committed before December 1971 through a flawed judicial process, the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.
It went on add that the attempts by the government of Bangladesh to malign Pakistan, despite Pakistan’s keen desire to develop brotherly relations with the country, are regrettable.
The office said the 1974 Tripartite Agreement is the cornerstone of relations between the two countries.
It needs to be emphasised that, as part of the agreement, the government of Bangladesh had “decided not to proceed with the trials as an act of clemency,” it added.
It maintained Pakistan reiterates its desire for friendly relations with Bangladesh.
On Wednesday, Pakistan said it was ‘deeply saddened’ on the hanging, terming it also unfortunate for the people of Bangladesh who had elected Nizami as their representative in parliament.
It held the stance that the “act of suppressing the opposition by killing their leaders through flawed trials was completely against the spirit of democracy.”
Nizami was the fifth highest-ranked opposition and fourth leader of the JI to have been executed since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina set up a war crimes tribunal to look into alleged abuses during the independence war.
