Gen Musharraf in Dhaka, regrets 1971 excesses

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said on Monday he regretted the events of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan and ...

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said on Monday he regretted the events of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan and called on Bangladeshis to bury the past.

His remarks, which he wrote in a visitors’ book at a memorial for the war dead near Dhaka, were the first time Pakistan has come close to apologising its role in the war in which millions of Bangladeshis died. ‘‘Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pain of 1971 events. The excesses committed during the unfortunate period are regrettable,’’ he wrote after laying wreaths at the memorial at Savar.

Bangladesh says up to three million Bengalis were killed and some 200,000 raped by Pakistani military and their local collaborators during the war. ‘‘Let us bury the past in the spirit of magnanimity. Let not the light to the future be dimmed,’’ he wrote. Musharraf is on a three-day visit to Dhaka, chiefly to discuss how to further cement relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

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Dhaka officials said the issue of assets would be discussed with Musharraf, along with the issue of repatriation of some 240,000 Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh since 1971.

Officials said Musharraf would also meet business leaders and sign agreements on economic cooperation during his visit.

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