Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

The Aga Khan, the 49th hereditary (spiritual imam) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, arrives in Dhaka Monday on a four-day state visit.

The Prince Aga Khan is visiting Bangladesh at the invitation of chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed.

The Aga Khan will meet president Iajuddin Ahmed, foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, law adviser AF Hassan Ariff, finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam and education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, the foreign ministry said in a statement Sunday.

The Aga Khan will visit Bangladesh as part of the commemoration of his 50th anniversary as the imam of the Ismaili community.

He acceded to the Ismaili Imamat, succeeding his grandfather Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan in 1957.

The Shia Ismaili Muslims are an ethnically and culturally diverse community, with their members living in 25 countries.

The Aga Khan is the founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, a group of private, non-denominational development agencies working to empower communities and individuals to improve living conditions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa and, Central and South Asia and the Middle East.

"The Aga Khan will lay the foundation stone of a school in Bashundhara and the Ismaili Jamatkhana and centre in Dhaka," the Press Information Department said in a statement.

The Aga Khan is based in Paris.