Celebrating ‘71: Birth of a nation

Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday that the Muslim- majority Bangladesh was pledge-bound to uphold interfaith harmony in the country in line with its long standing tradition.

Prime Minister Hasina said this when she called on President Ram Nath Kovind in Dhaka on the first day of his three-day maiden State Visit, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said.

Briefing the media after the meeting, Momen said that Prime Minister Hasina told the Indian President that Bangladesh was pledgebound to uphold interfaith harmony in the country in line with its long standing tradition as “we do not consider any (religious) community as a minority group”.

On Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, during a press briefing in New Delhi, had described the president’s visit as the occasion of “great historical significance”.

Earlier, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said that President Kovind and Prime Minister Hasina discussed several issues of mutual interest and bilateral cooperation between India and Bangladesh.

Both sides reviewed the progress in the multifaceted and comprehensive bilateral ties. The two leaders (President Kovind and Prime Minister Hasina) also recalled the spirit of the 1971 Liberation War and expressed satisfaction at the joint celebration of Maitri Diwas on December 6, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Wednesday.

President Kovind arrived here earlier in the day on a maiden three-day State Visit during which he will hold talks with his counterpart M Abdul Hamid and attend the golden jubilee celebrations of Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971. –(PTI)