National

PM returns home from India

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returned home this evening winding up her four-day official visit to India on an invitation by her counterpart Narendra Modi.A Biman Bangladesh Airlines VVIP flight carried the premier back home along with her entourage members landing at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 6.50 pm.Indian State Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Babul Supriyo saw her off at Indian air force’s Palam Station to see the premier off as her aircraft took off at 4.45 pm local time.Bangladesh High Commissioner in New Delhi Syed Moazzem Ali and Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsh Vardhan Shringla were present during her departure.During the visit, the prime minister held official talks with Modi and called on Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari.All India National Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushama Swaraj and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Mukherjee called on her.Dhaka and New Delhi signed 34 instruments in the forms of agreements, MoUs and bilateral documents after the two premiers’ talks at the ball room of the Hyderabad House.Sheikh Hasina paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India, by placing a wreath at his Samadhi in Rajghat.The two prime ministers unveiled the Hindi edition of Bangabandhu’s autobiography "Unfinished Memoirs of Bangabandhu".Sheikh Hasina honoured Indian Armed Forces members who embraced martyrdom in Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.She visited Ajmer Sharif at Rajasthan and offered ziarat of the mazar (shrine) of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (RA).The premier attended a banquet hosted in her honour by the Indian president. She also joined another banquet hosted by her Indian counterpart for her.At the fag-end of her tour, Sheikh Hasina joined a reception accorded by India Foundation and attended a business event in New Delhi.It was Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s maiden official visit to India after her present government was voted to power through the January 5 elections in 2014.The premier last paid her official visit to India in January 2010 which was reciprocated by her Indian counterpart in June 2015.Source: BSS