Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today paid her last respect to Queen Elizabeth II.
Sheikh Hasina arrived in London, on an official visit to the United Kingdom, on September 15 to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK, Saida Muna Tasneem, while briefing reporters said that in the morning the Prime Minister along with her younger sister Sheikh Rehana went to the Palace of Westminster to pay their last respects to the Queen.
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Sheikh Hasina observed a minute-long silence as a mark of respect to the late queen at the Westminster Hall of the palace where the body of Elizabeth II was kept in the lying-in-state.
Earlier, on her arrival at the Westminster, Representative of the British Speaker received the PM and her younger sister.
Later, they were taken to Lancaster House where the condolence book was opened.
PM Hasina wrote her condolence message in Bangla.
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After that the Prime Minister was taken to another room where she made her tribute to the Queen in front of a camera.
At the Lancaster House, UK State Minister for Foreign Affairs Vicky Ford received her.
The PM reminisced that she met the late Queen eight or nine times and the latter used to know her by her first name.
“She was a motherly figure to me,” she shared with the UK state minister for foreign affairs.
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“… It seems a guardian is gone,” PM Hasina added.
Saida Muna Tasneem said that both the Prime Minister and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana saw the Queen in 1961 when she visited the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
Sheikh Hasina also said that the late Queen was a “global guardian” and due to her death a vacuum has been created.
In the condolence book, the Prime Minister wrote, “I am expressing deep condolence on behalf of the people of Bangladesh, my family and my younger sister sheikh Rehana.”
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“Sheikh Rehana, who is also a British citizen, wrote “she is the queen of our hearts and will always remain so”, the Bangladesh High Commissioner said.