The Sanaton Hindu community on Friday completed five-day celebrations of the Durga Puja, their greatest religious festival, with immersion of idols of goddess Durga in water bodies amid due religious fervor in Rangpur division.
A record number of 5,189 Puja Mandaps were set up in all eight districts of the division this year for Durga Puja celebration, amid tight security measures.
Despite restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the premises of Puja Mandap became overcrowded and wore eye-catching looks across the division.
Hundreds of devotees, mostly females, on Friday thronged Puja Mandaps since morning to have their last glimpse at goddess Durga seeking her blessings for the well-being of the nation, country, its people and humanity as whole.
They also fed goddess Durga with sweets, put vermilion on her face and exchanged the same among themselves at the Puja Mandaps.
In Rangpur, leaders of the district and city units of Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Parishad (BPUP) expressed satisfaction over the tight security measures taken by the authorities concerned for peaceful celebra
tion of the five-day Durga Puja festival.
The Puja Mandap authorities started carrying idols of Debi Durga from this afternoon for immersions into water bodies amid strict security measures.
The district administration and Rangpur Metropolitan Police extended complete assistance to the Puja Mandap authorities and BPUP in immersion of idols.
Most of the idols of goddess Durga were immersed into the water bodies of Mulatol Dighee, Dimla Mandir Dighee, Jailkhana Ghat, Doulatpur Dighee, Rail Gate Dighee, the rivers Ghagot and other water bodies in the city and its surrounding areas.
President of district unit of BPUP Ajoy Prasad Babon thanked the government, local administrations and law enforcement agencies for ensuring complete security during the five-day celebrations of the Durga Puja.
Earlier, the religious festival began on last Monday with 'Bodhan' (enlightenment) and the Sanaton community completed the five-day celebrations with immersion of the idols on the 'Bijoya Dashami' today.
Rangpur Divisional Commissioner Abdul Wahhab Bhuiyan, Deputy Inspector General for Rangpur Range Police Devdas Bhattacharya, Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mohd Abdul Alim Mahmud, Mayor of Rangpur Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa, Deputy Commissioner Md Asib Ahsan, Superintendent of Police of Rangpur Biplob Kumar Sarker and other officials visited various Puja mandaps and exchanged greetings with the Sanaton devotees.
Similar reports of celebrations of the five-day Durga Puja festival with immersions of idols were received here from Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat and Kurigram districts of the Rangpur division.