By IANS
Srinagar : Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari arrived here Saturday on a two-day visit to the Kashmir Valley.
This is Ansari’s first visit to Kashmir after being elected the Vice president.
Jammu and Kashmir governor S.K. Sinha, Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, senior ministers of the government, senior civil and military officers received the vice president at the Srinagar airport.
His wife, Salma Ansari, accompanied him.
From the airport, Ansari flew in an army helicopter to the Nehru helipad inside the headquarters of the army’s 15 corps in the Badami Bagh area of summer capital Srinagar.
Ansari and his wife later visited the Nishat Garden on the banks of the Dal Lake where the couple were served a cup of hot Kashmiri Kahwa to ward off the winter cold.
The Valley is presently reeling under intense cold with night temperatures four degrees Celsius below the freeze point.
The vice president will visit the Hazratbal shrine on the southern shore of the Dal Lake Saturday evening.
The shrine housing the relic of the Prophet of Islam is the holiest Muslim shrine in Kashmir.
On Sunday, Ansari will address the fourth convocation of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture and Technology.