india

Updated: Jul 07, 2020 04:08 IST

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina hugged Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra when she called on her on Sunday, prompting the latter to describe the hug as “overdue”.

“An overdue hug from Sheikh Hasina Ji whom I have been waiting to meet again for a long time. Her strength in overcoming deep personal loss and hardship and fighting for what she believed in with bravery and perseverance is, and always will be a great inspiration for me,” Priyanka tweeted after the meeting with the Bangladeshi premier along with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, her mother and Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi and Congress leader Anand Sharma.

The meeting lasted around half-an-hour with the Congress leaders discussing issues concerning the two countries, ANI reported.

WATCH | ‘Overdue hug’: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on meeting Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina

The “deep personal loss” that Priyanka wrote about was the assassination of Sheikh Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and most of the family on August 15, 1974 in Bangladesh. She escaped death because she was in Germany with her husband.

It wasn’t until May 1981 that she was not allowed to return to Bangladesh after she was elected to lead the Awami League Party.

Sheikh Hasina is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh and won a fourth term in December 2018.

Manmohan Singh had visited Bangladesh as Prime Minister in 2011 after she had won her second term in 2009.

Prime Minister Hasina’s four-day official visit to India ends Sunday. Earlier this week, she held a series of bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on trade, connectivity and people-to-people ties and also attended the India-Bangladesh Business Forum, held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.