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Bangladesh on Tuesday welcomed visiting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's statement of regret over 'excesses' during its liberation war three decades ago.
"We welcome what President Musharraf wrote in Savar and (said) at the banquet last night," Bangladesh Foreign Minister Morshed Khan told reporters.
"We don't want to embarrass a guest by discussing issues like an apology for the 1971 war situation. It is the spirit of the people of the two countries that will decide that," he said.
Musharraf, the first Pakistani army ruler to visit Bangladesh since the independence of this country in 1971, while paying homage at the National Martyrs' Memorial, near Dhaka, had described the events of 1971 'unfortunate' and the excesses 'regrettable'.
"Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pains of the events of 1971. The excesses committed during the unfortunate period are regrettable," Musharraf said at the banquet on Monday night.
"Let us bury the past in the spirit of magnanimity. Let not the light of the future be dimmed. Let us move forward together," Musharraf said, adding that 'courage to compromise is greater than to confront'.
Left-wing groups and some members of Bangladesh's main opposition Awami League have been pushing for a formal apology by Musharraf and compensation over the war in which an estimated three million people were killed.
However, renowned poet Shamshur Rahman, said, "This falls short of unconditional apology. We do not accept this."
The Awami League was not available for reaction.
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