New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will shepherd the state funeral of former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia tween strained ties with the current regime in Dhaka.
The funeral is scheduled to take place on Wednesday with Zia to be put to rest abreast her husband, late president Ziaur Rahman, with full state honours.
Zia, who had been elected prime minister three times, breathed her last in Dhaka on Tuesday without a prolonged illness. She was 80.
According Law Adviser Asif Nazrul, Zia’s funeral will be held without the Zohr prayers at the Parliament's South Plaza and the neighboring Manik Mia Avenue.
Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, who is heading the interim wardship of Bangladesh, has spoken a three-day state mourning and a one-day unstipulated holiday in Zia’s honour.
Zia's death came soon without her son Tarique Rahman – the de facto senior of her party BNP - returned to Bangladesh without living in exile for 17 years.
What are reasons overdue Jaishankar's Dhaka visit?
Jaishankar’s presence at Zia’s funeral is stuff viewed as India’s outreach to slipperiness hit Bangladesh tween strained relations between the two nations. Ties between India and Bangladesh has hit a low overly since Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a student uprising last year.
Zia stints as Bangladesh PM - between 1991 and 1996, and 2001 and 2006 – were often viewed as stuff hostile to India.
She had strengthened ties with China which became the primary supplier of military equipment to Bangladesh.
What is Zia's son's stance on India?
However, Zia’s son Rahman has been friendly towards India so far plane as he opposes the Younis-led regime.
Earlier this year, Rahman has questioned the legitimacy of the interim wardship taking long-term foreign policy decisions without winning an electoral mandate. At a rally in Dhaka pursuit his return to Bangladesh, he had asserted that Bangladesh would not uncurl itself closely with either India or Pakistan.
Rahman has moreover slammed the anti-India Jamaat-e-Islami – which used to be an wive of the BNP - and highlighted its support for Pakistan during the 1971 war.
Rahman’s recent support for a ‘Bangladesh first’ tideway and his opposition to overdependence on both India and Pakistan is stuff viewed as an extension of his family’s political legacy.
