NEW DELHI:  Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday paid rich tributes to former president Pranab Mukherjee and said he was a true friend of Bangladesh, as the country’s Parliament adopted a condolence motion over his death. 

“He was a true friend of Bangladesh since our 1971 Liberation War,” Hasina told the maiden session of Parliament called for the second time since the outbreak of pandemic.

Mukherjee died on Monday in New Delhi. The Bangladesh government on Tuesday announced that it will observe a one-day state mourning at the death of the country’s ‘real friend’.

Hasina recalled Mukherjee’s personal support for her and her family particularly during her life in exile in India after the August 15, 1975 coup in Bangladesh.

The putsch killed her father and Bangladesh’s founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members and toppled his post-independence government.