Bangladesh's foreign minister on Friday asked his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani to apologise for "war crimes committed by the army in 1971", a ministry official said. Dipu Moni made the request during a meeting in Dhaka with Hina Rabbani following previous discussions about the issue between the two countries, said Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes.
"The foreign minister has raised the 1971 issue and expected that Pakistan would apologise at one stage," Quayes told reporters after the meeting. "There are some unresolved issues between the two governments and she expects that Pakistan would come forward to resolve them," Quayes said. Rabbani was on a six-hour visit to Bangladesh to formally invite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to a summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad on November 22. "The foreign minister said that they have regretted in different forms in the past and that it was time to move forward," Quayes said.