Pakistan refutes Bangladesh claim

Denying responsibility for posting a misleading video on a Facebook page maintained by Pakistan high commission, Islamabad has summoned Bangladesh envoy and protested Dhaka’s claim of distortion of Bangladesh's history declaring its independence.

Director General (South Asia & SAARC) to the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned High Commissioner of Bangladesh Tarik Ahsan in Islamabad on Thursday, two days after Dhaka sought a formal note of apology from the Pakistan mission in Bangladesh over the incident.

“The High Commissioner was conveyed that sharing of a video by a third party cannot be attributed to Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka,” reads a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan on its website on November 2.

Pakistan also protested what it said “the use of undiplomatic language” by Bangladesh, “on an incident of obscure origin,” in the press note.

“Pakistan has been pursuing a policy of maintaining friendly and cordial ties with Bangladesh, it claimed.

On October 31, Bangladesh foreign ministry summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to Dhaka Rafiuzzaman Siddiqui and asked Islamabad to apologise.

In a strongly worded diplomatic note, the foreign ministry stated that the message conveyed in the video that it was not the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who declared the independence of Bangladesh was a blatant lie.

The video claimed that the then Major Ziaur Rahman had declared the independence of Bangladesh in 1971 and that Bangabandhu did not want Bangladesh's independence, he only sought autonomy. 

According to foreign ministry officials, the 13:45-minute video had initially been posted on a Facebook page called Pakistan Affairs. Several Bangladeshi media outlets reported that the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka shared the video on its Facebook page and that it was taken down following a public outcry.

“The government of Bangladesh seeks a formal note of apology for this ill-motivated and misleading video post and calls for an immediate withdrawal of the footage from the Facebook page reportedly maintained by the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka,” said the foreign ministry in a statement. 

Source: thedailystar