Indian President Pranab greets Hasina on her birthday

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has greeted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who celebrated her 68th birthday with children in the US.

Hasina is currently in New York to attend the UN General Assembly.

Mukherjee sent his greetings to Hasina's hotel suite on Sunday morning local time. Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, too, sent her a gift.

Bangladeshi officials at the UN mission said the prime minister cut a cake with her son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed (Joy) and daughter Saima Wazed Hossain (Putul) in the early hours of Sunday.

Muhammad Ziauddin, Bangladesh's ambassador to the USA, and permanent representative at the UN AKA Momen joined Hasina with their families.

Ambassador Momen’s daughter Sarah Momen cut the first of the three cakes while Hasina's daughter and son cut the other two.

The prime minister's entourage also greeted her on her birthday.

Born on Sept 28, 1947 at Gopalganj's Tungiparha, Hasina is the eldest daughter to Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib.

She and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana survived the Aug 15, 1975 massacre in which all other members of her family were killed.

Hasina took the helm of the Awami League after she returned home in 1981 ending six years of exile and emerged as the Opposition Leader after the fall of military ruler HM Ershad.

She became the prime minister for the first time in 1996 when her party came to power after 21 years.

The Awami League won the 2008 parliamentary polls and Hasina became the prime minister for the second time.

She retained office for the third time after her party-led alliance swept the Jan 5 polls boycotted by the BNP.