Durga Puja begins in Bangladesh amid tight security

Dhaka, Sep 28 (PTI) The Hindu community on Sunday began the main Durga Puja festival across Bangladesh with officials deploying over two lakh personnel throughout the country to ensure security amid “minor incidents of obstructions.” Sounds of drums, ululation, conch shells and temple bells filled Dhakeshwari National Temple in Dhaka as worshippers rallied to welcome the Goddess Durga, witnesses said as the first day of the festival began with the unveiling of the face of the deity on the day of Maha Shashthi.

“We expect the Puja this year to be celebrated in festivity. We are happy with the government for its assistance and the security arrangements,” Bangladesh Puja Celebration Council President Basudev Dhar told PTI.

He added the number of puja mandaps across the country increased this year compared to the last year.

So far, the council received “minor incidents of obstructions” from 11 places, Dhar said, adding, the authorities quickly intervened and arrested the culprits.

The organisers said the puja this year was being celebrated at 33,350 mandaps or makeshift decorated pandals.

According to state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), Home Adviser retired lieutenant general M Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said that around two lakh Para Police Ansars and 430 platoons comprising over 15,000 para military Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were engaged for the puja security.

The security forces would work alongside more than 70,000 policemen to maintain law and order during the festival, he said on Sunday.

Chowdhury, however, said rumours or misinformation over the puja spread by “accomplices of the ousted fascist regime” of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina could create confusions and urged the media to offset any such misinformation.

“The media has more power than us to counter rumours and misinformation,” he said.

A police headquarters statement, meanwhile, said the police force was committed to maintain law and order and “uphold the tradition of interfaith harmony in Bangladesh.” Earlier on September 16, Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus had visited the Dhakeswari National Temple to witness preparations for the Durga Puja.

“We are all members of one family. The entire nation is one family. Within a family, there may be differences of opinion or variations in behaviour, but the family bond is an unbreakable entity...Our goal is to stand united as one unbreakable family as a nation,” he told the devotees at the temple, one of the shakti peeths.

Soon after assuming power in August last year, Yunus visited the Dhakeswari Temple, where he vowed to develop all Bangladeshis as “one family”. But, in recent months, minorities were excluded from meetings of his national unity commission.

Two months ago, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said religious minorities were facing escalating violence and systemic exclusion. It cited reports of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and Bangladeshi rights groups.

The Council said the minority communities faced 2,442 incidents of communal violence in 330 days from August 4, 2024, when the political unrest reached its peak, toppling then prime minister Sheikh Hasina's government.

It said the incidents included “murders, rapes, vandalism of places of worship, forced evictions, and attacks on small communities”.

India has been expressing concerns over attacks on minorities, especially Hindus, in the country. PTI AR NPK NPK