President off to Germany, UK for health check-up

President M Abdul Hamid left Dhaka in the early hours of Saturday on a 16-day visit to Germany and the UK for health check-up. 

A regular aircraft of Qatar Airways (QY639), carrying the President and his wife Rashida Khanam, took off the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka around 3.20am.

Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and Moroccan Ambassador to Bangladesh Majid Halim, British High Commissioner Robert Chatterton Dickson, Ambassador of Germany to Bangladesh Achim Tr"ster and other high-ranking civil and military officials saw the President off at the VVIP lounge of the airport.

President Hamid is scheduled to undergo a health checkup in a hospital in Germany and an eye hospital in London.

The 78-year-old president has long been suffering from glaucoma, a group of eye conditions that damage the optical nerve.

He used to have his health checkup in London and Germany while he was the Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad.

The head of the state is expected to return home from London on November 13.