Dhaka: More than three decades after Pakistani occupation troops carried out a genocide during the Bangladesh liberation war, President Pervez Musharraf on July 29 regretted the "excesses" and called for burying the past.

Musharraf, the first Pakistani Army ruler to visit Bangladesh since the independence of this country in 1971, chose ironically to record his expression of regret while paying homage at a memorial, about 50 km from Dhaka, for those who laid down their lives for Bangladesh's liberation.

"Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pains of the events of 1971. The excesses committed during the unfortunate period are regrettable," Musharraf wrote in the official visitors' book after laying a wreath at the National Martyrs Memorial at Savar.

"Let us burry the past in the spirit of magnanimity. Let not the light of the future be dimmed. Let us move forward together," Musharraf said, adding "courage to compromise is greater than to confront."

An estimated three million people were killed and nearly three lakh women were raped by Pakistani Army and their local henchmen, comprising mainly fundamentalist groups, during the nine-month liberation war of Bangladesh.

PTI