By Bula Devi
New Delhi : In an out of box initiative, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will grace the India-Bangladesh cricket test match beginning November 22 at the historic Eden Garden.
According to sources, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to attend the event. There are high chances that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may also show up. There is, however, no official confirmation about Shah or Banerjee attending the event.
Sources in the Bangladesh High Commission confirmed the Prime Minister’s one-day visit. She will go directly to Kolkata.
As per her itinerary, she will visit the cricket ground in the morning and return back to the hotel. Again, she will go back to the ground in the evening. Later she will take the flight back to Bangladesh at night.
She will come with a delegation of ministers. In all probability the Sports minister will also be part of the delegation.
It appears that the Ministry of External Affairs is not involved in the programme since it is not a bilateral visit.
It is believed that even before becoming the president of Board of Cricket Control of India, Sourav Ganguly had already invited Bangladesh Prime Minister in his capacity as president of the Cricket Association of Bengal.
Earlier there were doubts about Hasina’s visit following killing of a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan and injuring another in firing by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) troops on October 17.
The incident took place in Murshidabad district in the morning of the fateful day. Later BSF VK Johri spoke to Maj Gen Shafeenul Islam over hotline.
The problem reportedly started after BGB held three Indian fishermen who were allowed by the BSF to fish within the international border that runs through the Padma river that offers rich catch of Hilsa fish.
Subsequently, the BGB sent two of the Indian fishermen to inform the BSF while holding back the third one. A six-member BSF team left in a motorboat to resolve the issue. However, a BGB jawan reportedly shot one of the BSF team members and injured another as they were returning to the motorboat seeing the “aggressiveness” of the BGB personnel.
