Readers Respond

Here are some comments that came in response to Sunday's The Daily Star news report headlined “Pakistan learnt no lesson from 1971”

Shameem, USA
Imran Khan is a Pakistani citizen, but he admitted that there was a genocide in 1971 in the then East Pakistan . However, some of our Bangladeshi people still do not admit that genocide took place in1971. It is really sad.

Imran Chowdhury
Pakistan army should apologise to the Bangalees for the genocide they committed in East Pakistan in 1971.

S Khan
He said this before, couple of months ago on national television. But dissenting voices in Pakistan are usually silenced.

Dev Saha
True, lesson has not been learned from 1971. But Imran Khan is pointing his finger to the wrong direction. The very elephant in the room is the Pakistan army. And he dares not speak against them because that could finish his dream of becoming the next prime minister. Khan will be representing the civil face of military and his Taliban brothers.

Sabir Majumder, USA
These days I hear hopes from the expatriate Pakistanis in the US about their new and rising leader Imran Khan. I hope he can become a true civilian leader of Pakistan which I think an impossibility given the fact that Pakistan is a failed state already. However, we Bangladeshis have definitely learned a lesson about their model of Muslim brotherhood during our War of Independence in 1971.

Mohammad Nurul Hoque
Thanks to Imran Khan for a nice interview. We want your success in politics in Pakistan.

Amran Khan
I think Bangladesh could have been a separate country back in 1947. I still don't understand the logic why two different cultures with a distance of about 1000 miles had to be one state (with respect to our predecessors). Why we had to bleed all the way? A mere 'sorry' is not enough for the killing and humiliation of my ancestors. They must conduct a trial of the war criminals.

M.K. Aaref
Does it matter what he says? After ending our 23 years' association with 'them', we just celebrated our 40th anniversary. A nation that was established on the basis of Islamic principles, which is supposed to treat all men, short and dark, tall and fair as equals, failed miserably on those principles.

An observer
Shall we believe what he says? Why he tells it now at the age of 60 or so? Why didn't he tell anything like this before? Will he tell the same if he wins Pakistan's next election by any chance?

Azam
Pakistan learnt nothing since the independence of Bangladesh. But we learnt many things. Some of the criminals are under trial in our country, though many of us do not support it because they already forgot the dark days of East Pakistan.

Amin
If it takes so long for people like Imran Khan to understand Pakistani atrocities in 1971, then how long will it take for ordinary Pakistanis to understand?

Dr Karim, Australia
It is true that until 195 designated, proven Pakistani criminals of war, who had done horrific killings, rapes and crimes against humanity in 1971, couldn't be brought to justice, law and order can't come to normal, neither in Pakistan nor in Bangladesh.
Know thyself, my dear Pakistani friends and identify real enemies of a democratic society rather than witch hunting.