Diplomats at war?

Pakistan and Bangladesh can’t stop re-litigating the 1971 war. The latest spat to break out between the two countries was spurred when a diplomat in Dhaka was detained for “suspicious movement.” Just a few hours later, a Bangladeshi diplomat in Islamabad was reported to be “missing” before turning up safe and sound the next day. In such matters it is always difficult to place blame since the diplomatic world is filled with opacity and subterfuge. What can be said clearly is that the ties are at their lowest point in years, and it can mainly be attributed to Bangladesh’s decision to execute people after shady trials for their alleged role in the 1971 war and a witch-hunt for those who may have Islamist leanings. Just over a month ago, a Pakistani diplomat had to be withdrawn after she was accused of having ties to the banned Jamaatul Mujahideen and we followed by refusing to send our delegation to Dhaka for a South Asian sanitation conference and expelling a Bangladeshi diplomat. Bangladesh’s foreign minister said that his country would be maintaining relations with Pakistan but ominously added ‘for now.’ What is happening is keeping tensions high, with no chance of relations being normalised any time soon.

There is plenty of blame to be spread around but the executions in Bangladesh deserve more scrutiny. Most of those tried and executed belong to the Jamaat-e-Islami and other groups tied to opposition parties, making the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee seem like a vehicle for score-settling. Elections in 2014 were marred by violence and a boycott by the Bangladesh National Party. All of this can be dismissed as an internal matter on which Pakistan should stay silent, but Bangladesh is now investigating 195 Pakistanis for war crimes who were sent back to the country as POWs. Pakistan, for its own sake, needs to acknowledge the atrocities it committed in 1971 but Bangladesh, too, should not hold current ties hostage to a historical crime. This current impasse needs to come to an end and both countries bear equal responsibility for doing so.