Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar attends a bilateral meeting with Foreign Affairs Advisor of Bangladesh’s interim government Mohammad Touhid Hossain, not in the photo, in Dhaka on August 24, 2025
| Photo Credit: AFP

NEW DELHI

Bangladesh should “clean” its heart and move ahead by leaving the “unresolved issue” of Pakistan’s accountability in the atrocities committed by the Pakistani military in 1971, Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan, said in Dhaka on Sunday (August 24, 2025).

Mr. Dar, the first Foreign Minister of Pakistan to visit Bangladesh in more than a decade, met Professor Mohammed Yunus, Chief Adviser to the government of Bangladesh, and met the Ameer of Jamaat-E-Islami, Shafiqur Rahman, on Sunday (August 24, 2025). Pakistan and Bangladesh also signed a treaty that will allow diplomats and officials of both sides to travel without visas.

“In 1974, that issue was resolved, and the document is historic and available in both countries. After that, General Musharraf came here and addressed this [issue] in a candid manner, and I think even Islam tells us to clean your hearts,” Mr. Dar said after holding talks with the interim government’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Touhid Hossein.

The issue of accountability of Pakistan for the atrocities of 1971 has been a long-standing obstacle in normalising ties. Mr. Dar indirectly referred to the Tripartite Agreement of 1974 signed by Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where Pakistan had acknowledged the involvement of its military in the atrocities, and referred to the “regret” expressed by General Musharraf during his 2002 visit of Dhaka, but his hosts did not fully agree with the assessment of 1971.

Mr. Hossein said: “We want accountability, reparations. We want Pakistan to express remorse and seek forgiveness for the mass killings that took place here”. He also acknowledged that China is supportive of Pakistan-Bangladesh bilateral ties.

“China is enthusiastic about this bilateral relationship. Pakistan is also enthusiastic about this relationship. But the earlier government willingly held back Bangladesh-Pakistan relations, and we want Bangladesh to have the same kind of relations with Pakistan in the way it maintains relation with other countries,” Mr. Hossein said.

Mr. Dar’s visit is the first bilateral visit by a Pakistani Foreign Minister in nearly 13 years. In 2012, Hina Rabbani Khar, then Foreign Minister of Pakistan, visited Bangladesh to invite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to visit Islamabad to participate in the D-8 (Developing – 8) summit.

Both sides signed MoUs on setting up a Joint Working Group on trade and on increasing cooperation between the Foreign Service Academies of both sides. Separately, government-owned news agencies of both sides — the BSS (Bangladesh Sangbad Shansthan) and the APPC (Associated Press of Pakistan Corporation) — agreed to step up collaboration.

Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) and Pakistan’s Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) also signed an MoU on cooperation. “These agreements will institutionalise and further strengthen the bilateral cooperation in trade and economics, training of diplomats, academic exchanges, media cooperation and cultural exchanges,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan.

Pakistan also announced the launch of the “Pakistan-Bangladesh Knowledge Corridor”, under which 500 students from Bangladesh will receive scholarships to study in Pakistan over the next five years. “Additionally, training for 100 Bangladeshi civil servants will be arranged during the same period. Pakistan has also decided to increase the scholarships allocated to Bangladeshi students under Pakistan Technical Assistance Program from 5 to 25,” said MoFA, Islamabad.

As a special gesture, Mr. Dar visited Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-E-Islam at his residence and enquired about his health as Mr. Rahman had a cardiac surgery recently. Later in the evening, he also visited former Prime Minister and leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party Khaleda Zia at her residence.

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Watch: The 1971 war: The liberation of Bangladesh

Both India and Bangladesh celebrate the victory over Pakistan on December 16, 1971, and every year invite each other’s war veterans and serving officers to participate in the celebrations in two countries.

Bangladesh celebrates its Independence Day on March 26 but Dhaka emerged as the free capital of a free country on December 16 after nine months of Liberation War with crucial Indian assistance.

The shadow of the 1971 war still looms large. In this video, people who lived through it recall the events that led to the creation of Bangladesh.

Video: PTI

A model of a memorial building that Bangladesh is making for Indian soldiers who participated in the 1971 Bangladesh War. P

A memorial to honour the Indian soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 at Ashuganj in Bangladesh is in the advanced stages of completion. It will have the names of around 1,600 Indian soldiers inscribed on it. It is expected to be ready by December and the effort is to have it inaugurated by Prime Minister of the two Prime Ministers in March or April, said A.K.M. Mozammel Haque, Bangladeshi Minister for Liberation War Affairs.

This will be the first memorial in Bangladesh to exclusively honour Indian soldiers from the 1971 war. The foundation stone for the memorial at Ashuganj, Brahmanbaria was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in March 2021.

“The foundation for the monument was laid by the two Prime Ministers. The idea is by December it will be finished. All the names of the Indian soldiers martyred will be engraved so that everybody can know who are these people who sacrificed for our emancipation, for our liberation,” Mr. Haque said speaking on the sidelines of an event at the Bangladeshi High Commission on Thursday.

We will try to invite both the Prime Ministers, he said noting there are elections in both countries. “That is why we are thinking by March or April we will try to inaugurate it, by both the Prime Ministers,” he stated.

Major Chandrakant Singh, VrC, a 1971 war veteran and author of several books on the war, the latest on Lt Gen Sagat Singh then 4 Corps Commander, introduced Mr. Haque as the first Bangladeshi who attacked the Pakistan Army in 1971. “I feel happy and proud to have been associated with this project. My battalion 4 Guards captured Ashuganj on December 08, 1971,” he told The Hindu.

Ashuganj is relatively close to India bordering Tripura and can be reached by road from India. The idea was to have it close to the border with India, said Lt Col Quazi Sazzad Ali Zahir, a Bangladeshi war veteran of 1971 and who actively worked on the history project. He said that the memorial in a sprawling complex is intended to spread awareness of the war among the youth and will also have a children’s recreation facility on the premises. Ashuganj had particular significance in the liberation war as Indian forces advanced to Dhaka by crossing the Meghna river.

Mr. Modi visited Bangladesh in March 2021 to join the celebrations of the Golden Jubilee of the independence of Bangladesh, the birth centenary of the Father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 50 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. “I salute the brave soldiers of the Indian Army who stood with the brothers and sisters of Bangladesh in Muktijuddo… those who gave their blood in Muktijuddo, sacrificed themselves and played a very big role in realising the dream of independent Bangladesh,” Mr. Modi had said in his address and announced that India will donate military equipment used by the Indian armed forces in the Liberation War for museums in Bangladesh.