I'm reiterating what I heard out on the streets of Pakistan, in the drawing rooms of Pakistanis, in the papers of Pakistan, in the utterances of Pakistani politicians and in the words of the Pakistani analysts ! I don't speak for them...they do it well enough ! I agree that had BD been given independence from the very start it would all do us a world of good with Pakistan and BD having a relationship as that of brothers instead of being one country separated by a 1000 km of hostile territory which may or may not have been plotting against us depending upon whom you listen and what facts go before your scrutiny.
Having said that, ma'am with the deepest respect your reference point in this context (and others like this !) is usually 'race or ethnicity' whereas I don't agree with it. I am a Pan-Islamist in my own fashion and for me the notion that 'we're one nation because we're all Muslims' means something and by extension 'we're Muslims and we should stick together and stand up for each other' means quite a bit something too. So I do deeply regret '71 that it shouldn't have happened ! If we had chosen to be one country in '47 we should have transcended these baseless differences and carved out a name for ourselves in the history books instead of committing suicide the way we did.