Islamabad refutes Dhaka's claim

Denying responsibility for posting a misleading video on a Facebook page maintained by the Pakistan high commission, Islamabad has summoned the Bangladesh envoy and protested Dhaka's claim of distortion of Bangladesh's history of independence.

The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Islamabad Tarik Ahsan on Thursday, two days after Dhaka sought a formal note of apology from the Pakistan mission in Bangladesh over the incident.

“In order to register our protest on the use of undiplomatic language in a Note Verbale, on an incident of obscure origin, the High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Islamabad was summoned...,” reads a press release uploaded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan on its website on November 2.

“The High Commissioner was conveyed that sharing of a video by a third party cannot be attributed to Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka. Also, that Pakistan has been pursuing a policy of maintaining friendly and cordial ties with Bangladesh,” it said.

 “Pakistan desires to move forward in accordance with the Tripartite Agreement of 1974 wherein the Prime Minister of Bangladesh desired that the people of Bangladesh should 'forget the past and make a fresh start',” it added.

On October 31, Dhaka protested Islamabad's distortion of the history of Bangladesh by posting a misleading Facebook video.

The video claimed that it was not Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who declared the independence of Bangladesh. It also said the then army major, Ziaur Rahman, had declared the independence of Bangladesh in 1971 and that Bangabandhu did not want Bangladesh's independence, he only sought autonomy.

The Bangladesh foreign ministry summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to Dhaka Rafiuzzaman Siddiqui and asked Islamabad to apologise.

In a strongly worded diplomatic note, the foreign ministry stated that the message conveyed in the video was a blatant lie.