Bhutanese king due today
Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck arrives in Dhaka today to attend the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the country's independence.
Khesar is coming on a five-day state visit at the invitation of President Zillur Rahman.
The Bhutanese king has been invited on the occasion, as Bhutan was the first country to recognise Bangladesh after its independence through a nine-month bloody war with Pakistan, sources said.
Foreign ministry sources said King Khesar will arrive at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 12:15 pm.
President Zillur Rahman will receive him.
On landing, he will be given 31 gun salutes, followed by a guard of honour by a smart contingent of three services.
From the airport, the king will be driven to Sonargaon Hotel, where he will stay.
During the visit, he will call on President Zillur Rahman, while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will call on him at his hotel suite.
Also expected to call the Bhutanese king are Speaker Abdul Hamid, a number of ministers, including Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, Commerce Minister Faruk Khan and prime minister's Adviser Gowher Rizvi.
He will join a state banquet and a dinner in his honour to be hosted by the president and the prime minister.
He will visit the National Memorial in Savar to pay homage to the martyrs of the Liberation War in 1971. He will also visit the monument at Rayer Bazar mass grave, Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, Liberation War Museum, Dharmarajik Buddha Bihar at Bashabo in Dhaka.
He is also expected to visit Chittagong and Cox's Bazar.
The king will witness the children's parade on the Independence Day on March 26 at Bangabandhu National Stadium in the capital.
He will also join the Independence Day reception to be hosted by the president. He is due to fly home Monday morning.
Jigme Khesar was crowned the fifth Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King) in the sacrosanct chamber of the Golden Throne in Tashichhodzong, a Buddhist monastery and fortress in Thimphu, on November 6, 2008.
He is the eldest son of the Bhutanese King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, and his father's third wife, Queen Tshering Yangdon.
He has a younger full sister and brother and also four half-sisters and three half-brothers by his father's other three wives (all of his father's wives are sisters). Khesar is unmarried.
After completing his basic education in Bhutan, Khesar studied abroad at Phillips Academy, the Cushing Academy and Wheaton College in Massachusetts, United States, before graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford University, United Kingdom, where he completed the Foreign Service Programme and an MPhil in Politics.
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