War veterans see great prospect of Bangladesh
Indian and Russian war veterans, who fought for liberating Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, yesterday expressed their firm conviction that Bangladesh will make great progress in the near future to be a great country in the global arena.
They highly appreciated massive transformation of Bangladesh in various areas and wished every success of the country and its people.
The war veterans were addressing a reception accorded to them by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Gono Bhaban in the evening.
Twenty-nine war veterans from India and five from Russia and their spouses are now in the city to join the celebrations of the 46th Victory Day of Bangladesh.
Leader of the Indian delegation Lt Gen (retd) GS Sihota and leader of Russian delegation Kozhurin Victor, war veterans of India Brig (retd) Bhanot Madan Mohan, Air Commodore (retd) Chandra Mohan Singla and Vice Admiral (retd) Raman Prem Suthan spoke on the occasion.
Kozhurin Victor, who took part in sweeping mines at Chittagong Port after the country's independence, shared his experience as a marine officer. He presented a book on the mine-sweeping operation to the PM.
He wished to translate the book into Bangla from Russian and donate its proceeds for the welfare of the people of Bangladesh.
GS Sihota expressed his heartfelt thanks to the PM for inviting them to the Victory Day celebrations. He said they brought here greetings from everybody in India and also from the Indian defence forces.
Hasina thanked the war veterans for coming to Bangladesh on the eve of the Victory Day. She said Bangladesh will always remember their contributions.
People could not talk about the history of Liberation War as it was totally distorted after the assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, she added.
She, however, said when her party assumed office in 1996, her government started the process of remembering the foreign friends for their immense contributions to the war.
Hasina recalled the contributions of India and Russia in building the war-ravaged country after the Liberation War.
Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla, four serving military officers of India and officials of the Indian and Russian embassies in Dhaka were present.
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