Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud has said the visit of Indian journalists to Bangladesh will reach the relations between the two countries to a new height.
The minister expressed his hope that the visit will play a positive role in deepening the spiritual ties among the people of the two neighbours.
Hasan Mahmud, also the joint general secretary of the ruling Awami League, came up with the statement while exchanging views with the visiting Indian journalists in Bangabandhu Hall at Chattogram Press Club (CPC) on Sunday, according to BSS.
Twenty-five journalists from Kolkata and nine from Assam and Guwahati city- are now visiting the port city. On the invitation of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the journalists reached here on January 6 and will depart on January 10.
Hasan, along with the Indian journalists, visited Bangabandhu Tunnel and European Club at Pahartoli, the martyrdom place of Pritilata Waddedar, one of the pioneers of the anti-British movement.
Hasan said Bangladesh has been changed and the relations between the two countries have raised a new height in the last 14 years under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Premier Narendra Modi.
He said, "Though we are the citizens of two countries, we hear the songs of the same birds and grow up in the same river basin. The barbed wire fence could not divide our bond, culture, tradition, religion, language and above all our affection."
The minister said the Indian people were also suffered during the great Liberation War and about one crore people took shelter in India at that time. The bond between Bangladesh and India will be inscribed with golden letters, said Hasan.
He said the journalists could open the third eye of society and unmask the undiscovered issues. The journalists play a pivotal role in steering society and the state in the right direction, he added.
The minister hoped that the people of India will know the history of positive change of Bangladesh through the writings of journalists.
Chattogram deputy commissioner Abul Bashar Mohammad Fakhruzzaman, Kolkata Press Club president Snehashish Sur, its secretary Kingshuk Pramanik and senior journalist of Assam Monoj Kumar Goshwami, among others, addressed it with CPC president Salahuddin Mohammad Reza in the chair.
CPC general secretary Debdulal Bhowmik, senior vice president Chowdhury Farid, former president Ali Abbas, BFUJ vice president Shahidul Alam, Chattogram Union of Journalists president Tapan Chakkrabarty, among others, also addressed the programme while CPC joint general secretary Shahidullah Shahriar conducted it.