Bengal CM Mamata meets new Bangladesh envoy at secretariat

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday evening met newly appointed Bangladesh High Commissioner M. Riaz Hamidullah at the state secretariat, officials said.

Chief Secretary Manoj Pant was also present during the interaction.

"It was a courtesy meeting," a senior bureaucrat told PTI.

This was the first meeting between Banerjee and a Bangladesh High Commissioner in nearly nine years, sources claimed.

During the meeting, Banerjee expressed her strong hope to strengthen the traditional ties between the people of Bangladesh and West Bengal, the official said.

The CM also mentioned that the traditional linguistic, cultural and spiritual ties between the people of the state and the neighbouring country centred on common values and go beyond economic and commercial ties, the bureaucrat said.

The meeting comes days after Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the Centre to engage with the Bangladesh government to investigate the recent incident of vandalism at the historic Kachari House, also known as Rabindra Kachharibari, in Shahzadpur, Sirajganj, Bangladesh.

It was the ancestral home and revenue office of the Tagore family.