Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa offers prayers at Kashi Vishwanath temple
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday offered prayers at the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi district.
He was accorded a warm welcome by district officials on his arrival at the Lal Bahadur Shastri airport in the morning.
From the airport, Rajapaksa drove straight to the Kashi Vishwanath temple and paid obeisance to Lord Shiva in the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine.
Later, the Sri Lankan leader also visited Buddhist pilgrimage site Sarnath and paid tributes at the Dhamek Stupa, where Lord Buddha had delivered his first sermon.
Rajapaksa arrived in India on Friday on a five-day visit, his first overseas tour after being appointed as prime minister of the island nation in November last year.