'SAARC spirit alive' as South Asia shares Bangladesh's grief at Khaleda Zia's funeral: Muhammad Yunus

Dhaka: Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus on Thursday said the "SAARC spirit is alive", underlining that South Asian nations came together to share the country's "grief and sorrow" at the funeral of former prime minister Khaleda Zia.

Top leaders from across South Asia, including India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, attended Zia's funeral in Dhaka on Wednesday.

In a statement posted on social media, the Chief Adviser's office said Yunus was "deeply moved" by the respect shown by SAARC member states for the three-time prime minister and the world's second female Muslim head of government.

During meetings with visiting South Asian leaders, Yunus repeatedly emphasised the need to revive the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), it said.

“We witnessed a true SAARC spirit at the funeral yesterday. The SAARC spirit is still alive,” he said during his meeting with Maldives Minister of Higher Education, Labour and Skills Development Ali Haider Ahmed.

During his meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, Yunus said SAARC was "in action" on Wednesday.

"We shared our grief and sorrow together,” he told Herath.

The regional grouping comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Yunus also recalled his attempt to convene an informal gathering of SAARC leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“I wanted to hold a get-together among SAARC leaders, even if only for five minutes,” he said, expressing hope that SAARC would be revitalised as a meaningful platform for nearly two billion people in South Asia.

The SAARC has remained largely inactive since 2016, with its biennial summits stalled after the last one held in Kathmandu in 2014.

The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances”.

The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet.

India had ruled out any immediate possibility of revival of SAARC in view of Pakistan's "toolkit" of using terrorism in different ways, including against other members of the bloc.

Besides Jaishankar, Herath and Ahmed, Pakistan National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Nepal's Foreign Minister Bala Nanda Sharma also attended the funeral of Zia, who died in Dhaka on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. She was 80.