LAHORE, Pakistan, Saturday, Feb. 23— Pakistan yesterday recognized Bangladesh, her former eastern wing, in a sudden move preceding the opening here of a major conference of Moslem nations.
In announcing the decision yesterday, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, speaking in an emotional tone to legislators and chief ministers, said, in Urdu: “In the name of Allah and on behalf of the peoples of this country, I declare that we are recognizing Bangladesh.”
“Tomorrow the delegation will come,” said the 46‐year‐old Prime Minister, in a packed Lahore television studio. “We will embrace them as the representatives of 70 million Moslems.”
Early this morning Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the Bangladesh Prime Minister, arrived in Lahore and was welcomed at the airport by Mr: Bhutto. He flew here aboard the private aircraft of President Houari Boumediene of Algeria.
The last time Sheik Mujib and Mr. Bhutto met was in January, 1972, when Mr. Bhutto, then the new President of Pakistan, freed Sheik Mujib from 10 months in prison and a death sentence and allowed him to return to Bangladesh.
Plea by Ministers
The decision to recognize Bangladesh came after months of strong pressure on both nations from such Moslein countries as Egypt, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, who sought to heal this major breach in the Islamic world.
At issue was Mr. Bhutto's derand that Bangladesh publicly cancel plans for trials for 195 Pakistanis for “atrocities” com mitted during the struggle that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, in December, 1971.
Thursday, foreign ministers of the 37 Moslem nations meeting here made a final bid to break the deadlock before the start of the meeting of heads of state that began last night. A delegation of seven flew to Dacca, the Bengali capital, to urge Sheik Mujib to guarantee that there would be no trials.
Although Mr. Bhutto did not mention the issue of trials, it is widely assumed now that there will be none and that all Pakistani prisoners of war will return home.
Discussing the recognition move yesterday, Mr. Bhutto spoke in an unsteady voice: “I don't say I like this decision,” he said. “I don't say my heart is happy. This is not an auspicious day for me but we can't change the reality.” The speech drew brief—and not especially warm—applause from the audience of about 300.
Recognizing Bangladesh will mean, initially, an exchange of diplomats and the possible establishment of telephone, mail and communications links. Beyond that, Bangladesh and Pakistan may seek to resume economic ties.
Before the division of Pakistan, when the nation's two wings were divided by 1,100 miles of India, the eastern part was a major supplier of jute and tea. What is most significant is that now Pakistan admits publicly that her former eastern wing is a separate nation.
“Big countries,” said Mr. Bhutto, relating his decision to recognize Bangladesh to the Islamic conference, “have advised us to recognize Bangladesh, but I have never bowed to pressure from the superpowers or from India.
“But at this important time, when Moslem countries are meeting, we can't say we are under pressure. It is not our opponents who advise us to take this decision but our friends and brothers.”
The Conference Starts
Less than an hour after the telecast Mr. Bhutto appeared in the Punjab Assembly chambers in the heart of Lahore for the start of the three‐day conference of Islamic heads of state. The participants include the most prominent leaders of the Arab world, President Anwar el‐Sadat of Egypt, President Hafez al‐Assad of Syria, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Presiden Houari Boumediene of Algeria, Col. Muammar el‐Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, and Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Mr. Bhutto said in his opening address, dealing mostly with the Middle East:
“The root cause of the conflict is not an innate animosity between the Moslem and the Jew or even between the Arab and the Jew.
“To Jews as Jews we can only be friendly. To Jews as Zionists, intoxicated with their militarism and reeking with technological arrogance, we refuse to be hospitable.
“The pogroms inflicted on them during the centuries and the holocaust to which they were subjected under Nazism fill some of the darkest pages of human history. But redemption should have come from the Western world and not have been exacted, as it was, from the Palistinian people.”
Colonel Quaddafi, outlining a plan to deny concessions to industrial nations that support Israel said that essentially, Arab oil producers should divide nations into four groups: Industrial nations supporting Israel, would pay the highest prices. The remaining groups would be industrialized nations that support the Arab cause, and third‐world nations and Islamic nations.
Essential, India Says
NEW DELHI, Feb. 22 (Reu ters)—Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said today that Pakistani recognition of Bangladesh is a matter of great satisfaction for India.
“We have always felt,” she said in an official statement, “that this was an essential step for the normalization of relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan and for peace and co. operation on the subcontinent.”
U.S. Sees ‘Further Steps’
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (Reu ters) —A State Department spokesman said today that the Pakistani move “presages further stops intended to insure harmony and stability in South Asia,” The United, States rec onized Bangladesh in 1972.
Bengali Dispute in Brief
Pakistan has formally recognized the secession of Bangladesh, her former eastern wing, after a brief but bloody war two years ago, and has in effect conceded that a common religion is not enough to unite peoples separated by language, social and cultural barriers and 1,100 miles of India.
When the subcontinent achieved independence from Britain in 1947, it was a desire to carve a Moslem state from the two widely separated concentrations of Islamic peoples that led to the formation of the eastern and western wings.
History of Dispute—Punjabi‐dominated west Pakistanis, heavier, lighter‐skinned, more martial and stolid, speak Urdu, enjoy a Middle Eastern culture and have always had a more industrialized society than the Bengalis of the east. The easterners are small, dark people, proud of their poets and scholars and closer culturally to Indians. Economically and politically, the west dominated the east.
The western part, with 55 million people and 310,403 square miles of territory, controlled the army and thus the population of 75 million in the 55,126‐square‐mile eastern wing, where poverty, periodic cyclones, floods and other calamities fomented rebellion.
Bengali frustrations came to a head when Sheik Muji bur Rahman's Awami League party won a majority in the 1970 national Parliamentary elections, theoretically giving the east ruling power for the first time—and the President, Gen. Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, refused to allow it.
A growing separatist movement in 1971 was met with a military crackdown, the arrest of Sheik Mujib and a flood of Bengali refugees into India. India stepped into the fighting in December and a three‐week war ended with Pakistan defeated and Bangladesh born.
Prisoners of War‐A program among the three nations for repatriation of prisoners and exchanges of ethnic peoples began last fall. Under it, 195 of the 90,000 Pakistani prisoners were to remain in the hands of the Indian‐Bengali military command pending final settlements.
Threats by Bangladesh to hold trials for these men have stood in the way of diplomatic recognition by Pakistan.
Outstanding Issues — The economies of both countries were hit hard by the war and could benefit from trade ties. Pakistan has misgivings about accepting an estimated 260,000 Moslem Biharis, who have expressed a desire to leave Bangladesh. The Urduspeaking Biharis have reportedly been the victims of widespread persecution.
Published/Broadcast by: The New York Times
Date published: Feb. 23, 1974
Last modified: Feb. 23, 1974
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Entry Type: Archive
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/23/archives/pakistan-admits-that-bangladesh-exists-as-nation-prime-minister.html?fbclid=IwAR0oxIny91x8sb-zsHf1vObNA202KKhfWJKnIZAEoBhNSmVkciAm_Arw-gY