Britain’s Prince William on Thursday followed in the footsteps of his late mother, Lady Diana, with a trip to the Pakistani city of Lahore with his wife, Catherine.
On the last full day of their first trip to the country, the duchess of Cambridge wore a blue traditional Pakistani kurta-shalwar outfit and covered her head with a scarf when the couple visited the 17th-century Badshahi Mosque.
The couple walked barefoot on a red carpet through the sprawling lawn into the main praying hall along with the head cleric in the mosque, built by a Mughal ruler of the Indian sub-continent.
The mosque is one of the premier tourist attractions in Lahore, known as the cultural capital of the country, with several heritage sites, art galleries, theatres, and a British-era museum.
The prince and the princess later visited the same cancer hospital, visited by Lady Diana on a trip to Pakistan months before her death in 1997.
The duke and duchess of Cambridge played cricket with the national team’s players at a training academy for the sport, popular in both Pakistan and Britain.
The couple was gifted cricket bats for their three children by the head of Pakistan’s cricket board.
Another highlight of the day was a visit to an orphanage in the middle of the city, where they took part in celebrations of a child’s birthday, singing and clapping along.
However, security was high in the metropolis of around 10 million people, with thousands of troops, paramilitary guards and police personnel securing the royal route.
The governor and the chief minister of the central province of Punjab, gave them a red-carpet reception on their arrival in the city. (dpa/NAN)