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Bangladesh Govt. Grants AmnestyNEW DELHI (SpccUl-TPNS) gularly and are laying the— A recent announcement by the Bangladesh government that it was granting amnesty to more than 36,000 prisoners being hold for allegedly oollab-orating with the Pakistani army indicates that Bangladesh and Pakistan are preparing to establish normal International relations.According to a diplomatic source regularly in contact with Pakistani ruling circles, representatives of the two government have been meeting re-€GaNj£rsgroundwork for Pakistan’s recognition of its former eastern Wing as a sovereign nation.This source also revealed that Bangladesh has told Pakistan that war crimes trials will not be held for 195 Pakistani prisoners of war now confined in India.This report confirms information from a senior Bangladesh foreign, ministry official who said in Dacca recently that the government has abandoned the Idea of trials. For nearly two years, the promise of trials has been a cornerstone of Prime Minister Sheik Mujibur Rahman’s domestic policy.This decision, coupled with the announcement made in Dacca recently that 36,400 alleged collaborators would go free, spotlights Sheik . Mu jib's desire to establish normal diplomatic and trade relations with Pakistan and Its principal ally, China.The two, working in close cooperation, have kept Bangladesh out of the United Nations and Sheik Mu jib is still anxious to have the final stamp of legitimacy applied to his two-year-old nation through admission to the world body.Aside from international considerations, Sheik Mujlb bad pressing domestic causes for releasing the large number of prisoners, (among them former East Pakistan governor. Dr. A. M. Malik).For one thing, none of them had been charged with specific crimes and most of them had been imprisoned for nearly two years. This led to a growing feeling In Dacca that Sheik Majib wis holding onto at least some of the alleged eollabora tors in order to muffle political opposition. Such prisoners as Khan Sabur, a leader of the radical Moslem League and a minister in the cabinet of former Pakistani president Aynb Khan, fit this category.In addition, with hundreds of thousands of war prisoners and civilian refugees being repatriated in a three-way exchange among Pakistan, Bangladesh and India the atmosphere has been sweetened.Some 4,000 prisoners, those charged with such wartime crimes as murder, rape and arson, will remain Jailed awaiting trial.
Newspaper Details
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
Sat, Dec 08, 1973
Page 69
Full Page
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USA 19 Feb 2016
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