Terming Pakistan a “defeated force”, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said Islamabad’s protests over recent execution of a 1971 war crimes convict prompted Bangladesh to pull out of the SAARC Summit.
“Pakistan is a defeated force. We defeated them in our liberation War (in 1971), as a defeated force they can tell many things which matters little to us... Pakistan’s view is nothing but the aspersion of a defeated party, which people of Bangladesh should consider in that manner,” she said.
Pakistan’s protests over recent executions of a 1971 war crimes’ convict prompted Bangladesh to take the decision not to join the 19th SAARC summit to be held in Islamabad, Hasina said at a press meet here, a day after returning from New York where she attended the UN General Assembly.
“The diplomatic ties will be there... We will face them (Pakistan) diplomatically,” the PM said. She asked Bangladeshis to think about the relationship of “cohorts and patrons” of perpetrators of 1971 war against humanity who carried out genocides siding with Pakistani troops during the liberation war, in an oblique reference to BNP-led by former PM Khaleda Zia.