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DHAKA: Former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was honoured posthumously on Monday by Bangladesh for helping the country win independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Sonia Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's daughter in-law and the head of India's ruling Congress party, accepted the Bangladesh Freedom Honour from Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman at a reception in Dhaka.
“If Indira Gandhi could have been with us now, I know she would have been overwhelmed by the high honour you have bestowed on her,” Sonia Gandhi said in her acceptance speech.
Indira Gandhi was a friend of founding Bangladesh leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, no relation to the current president, and her Congress government intervened militarily to help the country achieve independence.
The award recognises Indira Gandhi's “direct support, cooperation, her strong role and unique contribution” to Bangladesh's independence, said Dhaka's cabinet secretary M. Abdul Aziz.
Under Indira Gandhi's leadership India sheltered 10 million Bangladeshi war refugees, lobbied for Bangladesh internationally, secured the release of Sheikh Mujib from a Pakistani jail and finally “risked a war to hasten Bangladesh's freedom,” he added.
Bangladesh has set up the honours to decorate 47 foreigners who helped the country during its struggle for independence and mark the 40th anniversary of its achievement, with Indira Gandhi's the first to be presented.
Indira Gandhi was receiving “the highest state award for her outstanding contribution to our liberation,” Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's spokesman Abul Kalam Azad told AFP.
Other recipients include former Beatles musician George Harrison, for his Concert for Bangladesh which he staged in 1971. They will receive their awards later in the year, officials said.
