\\\'Pakistan should apologise\\\'

The leader of a top human rights organisation in Pakistan has said that Pakistan should unconditionally and sincerely apologise to Bangladesh for the killing, torture, rape and looting during the country’s independence struggles 43 years ago. ‘Today or tomorrow, Pakistan must sincerely apologise to Bangladesh. Apart from the Pakistani progressive leaders, the common people of that country think that Pakistan should seek apology to Bangladesh,’ said Begum Nasim Akhtar, a witness to the genocide in the erstwhile East Pakistan by Pakistani forces March 25 to December 16, 1971. Nasim Akhtar, also a former central leader of Pakistan National Awami Party (NAP), said: ‘A true Muslim is he or she who seeks apology by realising his or her faults. There is nothing in it to get belittled, if Pakistan seeks apology,’ said Nasim Akhtar, also a former central leader of Pakistan National Awami Party (NAP), on the eve of 44th anniversary of victory of Bangalees over the occupation troops. Nasim Akhtar came to Dhaka on Mar 22, 1971, to join a rally scheduled for Mar 23. While staying in Dhaka, she could understand the real demands and conditions of the people of this country. On her way back home with a NAP delegation, Nasim Akhtar witnessed the genocide the Pakistani forces from the then West Pakistan carried out on unarmed Bangalees on the black night of Mar 25. Remembering the genocide of 1971, she said: ‘The dreadfulness of massacre that I witnessed on the night of March 25 in 1971 while we were being escorted to airport by a truck during curfew still haunts me. I shed tears over and over again recalling the memories of the 9-month massacre,’ according to BSS.