Indian home boss due today

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrives in Dhaka this evening on a three-day official tour of Bangladesh to facilitate a comprehensive review of current bilateral relations and sign deals for further liberalising the existing visa regime and cooperation between the two countries' police forces.

During the visit, he will call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and will co-chair the 6th meeting of India-Bangladesh home minister-level talks which is expected to cover wide range of security-related issues.

He is coming at the invitation of his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan.

Apart from his meetings with Hasina and Asaduzzaman, Rajnath will tomorrow visit Bangladesh Police Academy in Rajshahi's Sardah where he along with Asaduzzaman will inaugurate India-Bangladesh Friendship IT Building. The four-storey building was built under a joint financing arrangement for providing sophisticated IT facilities.

In Sardah, a Memorandum of Cooperation will also be inked between Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad and Bangladesh Police Academy to institutionalise and intensify cooperation between the two countries' police forces.

The home minister-level talks on Sunday will be concluded by signing of Revised Travel Arrangements 2018 to facilitate further easing the visa process to encourage, specially the youth and students, higher studies in India.

The meeting will discuss issues related to security, border management, cooperation in countering illegal activities, counter-terrorism cooperation, and youth being influenced by extremist groups.

As per the programme schedule, Rajnath will arrive in Dhaka at 6:30pm and attend a dinner to be hosted by Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsh Vardhan Shringla and it will be followed by a cultural programme.

The next day, the Indian home minister will call on Hasina at the Gono Bhaban at 10:00am.

He will then go to Jamuna Future Park to inaugurate state-of-the-art Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC) with Asaduzzaman. This new IVAC will be the largest visa application centre in the country with some 50 application counters.

Rajnath will then fly to Rajshahi and attend the programmes at Bangladesh Police Academy at Sardah.

On the concluding day of his visit on Sunday, he will first visit the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi and lay a wreath at the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. After that, he will go to the Dhakeshwari Temple.

He will join the home minister-level talks held on a regular basis between Bangladesh and India. Home ministers of the two states will co-chair the 6th meeting to be held at Bangladesh Secretariat at 10:30pm on Sunday. The last talks were held in New Delhi in July 2016.

Issues related to fake currencies, border killings, cattle smuggling, movement of illegal immigrants and Rohingya issues are likely to be discussed.

Rajnath will depart at 1:00pm on Sunday.