Ishaq Dar, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan, is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on August 23, 2025, for a two-day bilateral visit. This would be the first bilateral visit of any Pakistani Foreign Minister in the past three decades. This visit is of special significance because the interim government led by Dr. Muhammad Yunus is making desperate attempts to strengthen ties with Pakistan.
Despite the geographical distance and the historical overhang of atrocities committed by Pakistan during the 1971 India-Pakistan conflict, Dhaka and Islamabad have been busy repairing bilateral relations since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. While military and political alliances are increasing, Pakistan has yet to express remorse or apologize for the genocide of 1971. Instead, Pakistan-based media outlets are publishing articles calling for reclaiming Bangladesh as a revenge for Pakistan’s defeat in the 1971 war with India.
In 1971, Pakistan carried out a genocide against Bangladeshi Bengalis in the former East Pakistan in the name of ‘Operation Search Light’. More than three million people were martyred and more than 300,000 women lost their dignity at the hands of the Pakistani army. Pakistan was defeated by the indomitable struggle of the Bengali freedom fighters. Pakistan has been looking for an opportunity to avenge that humiliating defeat.
Since the carnage, the common people of Bangladesh have repeatedly demanded that Pakistan apologize for the barbarism of 1971. However, this demand of the common people of Bangladesh has not been fulfilled even today. The hands of the Pakistani army are stained with the blood of millions of Bengalis. The pro-independence forces of Pakistan and their local collaborators Razakar Al-Badr can never be forgiven.
Pakistani army officials are reluctant to apologize for the genocide of 1971. Pakistan, known as the home of jihadis, is desperate to use Bangladesh as a pawn in its grand design of destabilising India. The recent statements by senior Pakistan army officials declaring that in any future conflict, Pakistan would hit India from the “East” are an indication of their sinister plans of using Bangladesh as a base for their anti-India activities.
Pakistan wants to use the soil of Bangladesh for its radical anti-India efforts. However, historically, Bangladesh has had a friendly relationship with India. Delhi is the first to extend a helping hand in any crisis faced by Bangladesh. Bangladeshi patients have the highest trust in Indian hospitals. But Pakistan is trying to poison this relationship. Pakistan is once again using its proxies to issue provocative statements against India, to drive a wedge between India and Bangladesh. Unfortunately, the interim government is playing the role of a silent spectator without reacting.
Pakistan wants to attack the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh again in a subtle way. They want to regain control over former East Pakistan and make Bangladesh a vassal state. The fact that an article titled ‘East Pakistan Must Return: Pakistan’s Hour of Reckoning After 54 Years’ has been published (Aug 16) in the Pakistani military-backed newspaper ‘The Catchline’ just prior to the forthcoming visit of the Pakistani Deputy PM to Dhaka, is clearly echoing that aspiration.
Bangladesh has opened military and civilian doors for Pakistan. Joint military training has begun, as well as unrestricted interactions in the defense sector. Both countries are now also considering visa-free relations. As a result, Bangladesh’s independence and sovereignty are now at risk. Bangladesh, painted with the blood of millions of martyrs, seems to be forgetting its own history of liberation. In order to erase that history, attacks have begun from 32 Dhanmondi to various other symbols of Bangladeshi identity. It is evident that Pakistan wants to destroy the very history of Bangladesh’s independence.
Amongst all of this, the interim government’s desperate attempt to mend relations with Pakistan is quite alarming. There have been several high-level interactions between the civilian and military leadership in the last 12 months.
Dr. Yunus met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Cairo in December 2024, which set the stage for a flurry of high-level interactions. In January 2025, a six-member military delegation led by the Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General S M Kamrul Hasan, visited Pakistan, and a team from the Pakistan ISI visited Bangladesh. In April 2025, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Amina Baloch visited Dhaka. Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan began a four-day visit to Bangladesh on August 21, 2025.
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The Interim Government should demand that Pakistan recognize the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army on innocent Bangladeshi’s in 1971 and issue a public apology for the same. The Interim Government must appreciate that Pakistan, which has so far not reconciled with the liberation of Bangladesh, can never be a true ally of Bangladesh.
