Pakistani PM says Bangladesh crackdown a mistake

The Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has said the military intervention in the former East Pakistan to try to prevent it from becoming independent Bangladesh in 1971 was a mistake.

During his visit to Bangladesh for a regional business summit, Mr Sharif said the Pakistani authorities of the time should have handed over power to the Awami League party after it won the general elections in 1970.

Millions of people died in Bangladesh's independence war.

A BBC correspondent in Dhaka says it's the first time a Pakistani prime minister made such a comment.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service