Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has reached the Indian capital to attend the funeral of President Pranab Mukherjee’s wife.
Published : 19 Aug 2015, 11:22 AM
A special Bangladesh Biman flight carrying her left the Shahjalal International Airport just after 6am on Wednesday.
The aircraft landed at new Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport around 7:50am local time. Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Bangladesh ambassador Syed Moazzam Ali received her at the airport.
Her sister Sheikh Rehana, daughter Sayma Wazed, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad are accompanying the prime minister.
From the airport, Hasina went to the Rashtrapati Bhaban (presidential palace) and then to house of Avijit Mukherjee, the president’s son, where the body has been kept.
The prime minister later attended the funeral held at the Lodi Road crematorium in New Delhi.
Hasina is also scheduled to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence.
She is expected to leave New Delhi for Dhaka around 3pm, said Press Secretary to the PM Ehsanul Karim.
Mukherjee’s wife died on Tuesday morning at the age of 74.
Suvra Mukherjee’s ancestral home is in Bhadrabila village in Narail district.
She was suffering from respiratory problems and had a cardiac arrest about a fortnight ago, according to India media reports.
Former West Bengal Congress president Pranab Mukherjee enjoy intimate relations with the family of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
An ardent Rabindra Sangeet exponent and a talented painter, Suvra was born on Sept 17, 1940 and spent the first five years at Bhadrabila.
She studied up to second grade at local Chachrha Primary School before settling in India with her family.
One of her brothers still lives at Bhadrabila village.