Islamabad, Pakistan (BBN)-Pakistan has decided to summon Bangladesh’s envoy to lodge a protest and convey Islamabad’s concerns over the recent executions of two opposition members, a ruling party lawmaker told lawmakers in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The announcement by MNA Sheikh Aftab Ahmad came a day after lawmakers unanimously decried the ‘flawed war crimes trials’ of the opposition leaders in Bangladesh and urged the Pakistani government to take up the matter in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), reports The Express Tribune.
Salauddin Quadir Chowdhury, leader of the Bangladesh National Party, and Ali Ahsan Mojaheed of the Jamaat-e-Islami, were hanged on Sunday in Dhaka’s Central Jail.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office expressed ‘shock and anguish’ over the ‘unfortunate executions’ – a move that invited the wrath of the Bangladeshi government that called it ‘unacceptable interference’ in its internal affairs.
Replying to a calling attention notice of Jamaat-e-Islami lawmakers, MNA Ahmad told lawmakers on Wednesday that the government of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid was violating a tripartite agreement signed by Pakistan, Bangladesh and India in 1974.
“Bangladesh did not exist in 1971 and it was a war between Pakistan and India, and the trial of those who supported Pakistan was irrational,” he added.
Earlier, Bangladesh reacted sharply to a statement from Islamabad on Sunday’s execution of two war criminals, and summoned the Pakistan high commissioner in Bangladesh for lodging formal protest.
BBN/SK/AD