Modi blasts Pakistan for 1971 war

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday hit out at Pakistan over alleged brutalities in Bangladesh leading up to 1971 war, and on alleged terrorism, but his government held out its relationship with Dhaka as an example of how it would like to engage with Islamabad, foreign media has reported. 

The mixed messages allowed Modi to use the platform presented by the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to iterate his frequent criticism of Pakistan while also leaving open a window for a fresh thrust at talks in the coming months. 

Modi and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are expected to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, in June, where the grouping will formally induct the South Asian neighbours. The grouping would persuade them to put aside their differences at least at the SCO. 

Modi referred to the fast economic growth and improving human development indicators of Bangladesh under Hasina as an important example for the region, before citing his own government's motto of "sabka saath sabka vikas” (everyone together, and everyone's development). 

His government's vision involved sharing India's growth benefits with its neighbours. "But it is sad that there is a third ideology opposed to that of our two countries also in South Asia," Modi said. "Today is a day also to remember the cruelty that robbed lakhs of people of their lives before the war," Modi said. But his foreign secretary Jaishankar used the stark differences between India's relations with Bangladesh and Pakistan to send a message to Islamabad.