Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina to visit Ajmer Sharif dargah during India visit

Sheikh Hasina had also earlier visited Ajmer Sharif in 2010, when she became the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the 2nd time.

New Delhi: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be offering her prayers at the famous Ajmer Sharif dargah during her India visit in the first week of September. The Bangladesh Prime Minister is expected to be in India from 6th to 8th September. Hasina has been to Ajmer in the past, including the most recent one in 2017, and had offered Chadar at the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. She had also visited the shrine in 2010, when she became the prime minister of her country for the 2nd time. Hasina has been the prime minister of Bangladesh consecutively since 2009, winning elections in 2014, 2018.

PM Hasina has been a regular visitor to the famous Nizamuddin Dargah during her stay in Delhi from 1975 to 1981, after the assassination of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, had given asylum to Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana as Bangladesh underwent a tumultuous time, post killing of Sheikh Mujibur, the man responsible for creation of the country.

Her visit to India will focus on issues like connectivity and trade. Both sides are keen to restore the pre-1965 rail links and other connectivity links. During the visit of PM Modi to Bangladesh in March 2021, the two Prime Ministers inaugurated the third passenger train service ‘Mitali Express’ on Dhaka-New Jalpaiguri-Dhaka route through Chilahati-Haldibari rail link.

The 4-time Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, last visited Delhi in October of 2019 and then to Kolkata in November of 2019 to witness the pink ball test cricket match between India and Bangladesh. PM Modi and PM Hasina also met in a high-level event on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2019 to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, India had extended support by sending India made vaccines to the country. In 2021, the Government of India gifted 3.3 mn Covishield (Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines) to Bangladesh to assist in its efforts to fight against the pandemic.