'It seems a guardian is gone': PM Hasina says in final tribute to Queen
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Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, signs a book of condolence at Lancaster House in London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Picture date: Sunday 18 September, 2022. Jonathan Hordle/Pool via REUTERS
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday showed her last respect to the Queen Elizabeth II saying that in her death she "lost someone like my mother."
Hasina arrived in London on an official visit to the UK on 15 September to attend the funeral of the Queen.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK Saida Muna Tasneem told reporters said that Hasina along with her younger sister Sheikh Rehana went to the Palace of Westminster to pay their last respect to the Queen.
They observed the one-minute silence as a mark of respect to the late monarch at the Westminster Hall of the Palace of Westminster where her body was 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 the Lancaster House for signing the condolence book.
In the book, Hasina wrote her condolence message in Bangla.
After that the prime minister was taken to another room where she has given her tribute to the Queen in front of television cameras.
In the Lancaster House, UK State Minister for Foreign Affairs Vicky Ford received her.
The prime minister reminisced that she met the late Queen for eight or nine times and Elizabeth used to know her by her first name.
"She was a motherly figure to me, I lost someone like my mother," she shared with the UK state minister for foreign affairs.
"… it seems a guardian is gone (as she has died)," she added.
High commissioner Saida Muna said that the prime minister and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana both saw the Queen in 1961 while she had visited the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
Hasina also said that the late Queen was like 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."
"Sheikh Rehana, who is also a British citizen, wrote she was the queen of our hearts and will always remain," Bangladesh high commissioner said.
-TBS
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