By IANS,
Dhaka : Rekindling ties that go back nearly four decades, Bangaldesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her family met Priyanka Gandhi Vadra – daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi – who is on a visit here to see the rural development projects of the country.
Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed Putul, her husband Mashrur Hossain, their daughters Amrin and Aliza and son Zaief received Priyanka with a bouquet as she reached Sudha Sadan, the prime minister’s personal residence Tuesday evening, the United News of Bangladesh (UNB) reported.
Hasina’s London-based younger sister Sheikh Rehana and Minister for Home Affairs Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj were also present.
The meeting took place in a “cordial, family environment”, The Daily Star said.
Priyanka,a trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in New Delhi, reached here Tuesday afternoon on a two-day visit at the invitation of BRAC, one of the largest NGOs in the world, with wings in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa.
Hundreds of people lined the roadsides waving and cheering as a smiling Priyanka made her way to two schools at Charabagh and Kumkumari.
The scene was similar to the one when her brother Rahul, lawmaker and Congress party general secretary, was here last August on a five-day visit to study rural development projects.
The 36-year-old Priyanka, who does not hold any government or party position, was greeted with a cultural show by the schoolchildren. She also spent time speaking to individual students, before going on to the BRAC training and resource centre at Savar, 30 km outside the national capital.
Special Security Force officers had been deployed as part of a three-tier security arrangement, said officials.
Before leaving Dhaka for home Wednesday afternoon, Priyanka will pay a courtesy call on BRAC founder and chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed.
Priyanka’s visit acquires political and diplomatic significance because she is daughter of the late former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and grand daughter of late premier Indira Gandhi, whose government played a key role in the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation in 1971.