Dhaka - Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee arrived in Dhaka Saturday on a one-day visit to Bangladesh mainly to express Indian solidarity with the cyclone-hit people of its northern neighbour, officials said. Given a hearty welcome upon arrival at the Bangladesh airport in an Indian air force plane, Mukherjee is expected to call on the chief adviser of the caretaker government Fakhruddin Ahmed and other top government leaders.
Sources said India had withdrawn the ban on the sale of rice and pulses to Bangladesh in response to the request from Dhaka for emergency supplies of the staple.
The shortfalls were created in the wake of a super cyclone, Sidr, that hammered the country's southern coastline on November 15-16.
Mukherjee will tour Swarankhola, a cyclone hit town on the fringe of the mangrove forest, which was brutally struck by the hurricane with speeds of over 220 kilometres per hour.
Cyclone Sidr killed over 3,000 people living on the fragile coast.
Tens of thousands of people were displaced by the disaster which also triggered flash floods.
Mukherjee plans a symbolic gesture of distributing relief goods by hand to some cyclone survivors.
