DHAKA: India and Bangladesh have ratified the historic Land Boundary Agreement at the Prime Minster’s Office (PMO) at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in city on Saturday afternoon.
The Instruments of Ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement were exchanged in the presence of Sheikh Hasina and Narendra Modi, premiers of the two neighboring countries.
Moreover, India’s West Bengal state chief minister Mamata Banerjee was also present at the event.
“History is made as the Instruments of Ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement are exchanged,” an official twitter account of India’s Prime Minister’s Office.
The LBA was signed in May 1974 between the then Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and India Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Bangladesh ratified the Agreement in 1974, but India held back the process, saying it would require a constitutional amendment to implement the Agreement. 
India’s Parliament has recently ratified the deal callings for the transfer of 111 border enclaves to Bangladesh in exchange for 51 that will become part of India.
More than 50,000 residents will get citizenship after the agreement is implemented.
Earlier at Prime Minister’s Office, Hasina and Modi flagged off two bus services, which will ply on Dhaka-Shillong-Guwahati and Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala routes.
However, a special flight of Indian Air Force carrying Modi and his entourage landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 10:10am Saturday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina welcomed her Indian counterpart at the airport. Later, he was given a warm red carpet reception and guard of honor.
Later, Modi paid heart-felt tributes to the county’s founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by placing floral wreaths at Mujib’s portrait at Dhanmondi in city.
Prior to that, the Indian premier paid tributes to martyrs of the 1971 liberation war at National Mausoleum at Savar.
However, Modi’s two-day visit to Bangladesh will highlight the connectivity and security issues apart from signing of a number of instruments and deals, aiming to take the ties between the two neighboring countries to a newer height.
BDST: 1652/1725 HRS, JUN 6, 2015
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