Prez to attend Bangla Victory Day ceremony

New Delhi: India on Monday announced that President Ram Nath Kovind would pay a State Visit to Bangladesh from December 15 to 17, 2021 to attend the 50th Victory Day celebrations of Bangladesh. The visit will be at the invitation of his Bangladesh counterpart Abdul Hamid. New Delhi and Dhaka marked Monday as Maitri Diwas (Friendship Day), for this was the day in 1971 when India recognised Bangladesh as an independent and sovereign nation even as the liberation war was still on. At a function, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said, “For people of my generation, the 1971 war is an indelible part of our lived experience. The Pakistani Army’s genocidal atrocities in East Bengal in March 1971 resulted in over 3 million people being killed and countless violated with horrific brutality. Over 10 million people from East Bengal took refuge in India.”