The five-day celebration of Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Bengali Hindu community, ended here on Tuesday with immersion of the Goddess Durga in the river Padma mainly.
The last day rituals of the festival were celebrated amid much enthusiasm and festivity. ‘Prasad’ and sweets were distributed among the devotees and the people belonging to other communities, who visited the Puja Mandaps.
Marking the Bijoya Dashami women devotees applied ‘Sindur’ on the face of goddess Durga and exchanged among themselves amid joyous and festive mood.
Before removing the idols of Durga and other Gods and Goddesses from the altar of all mandaps or makeshift pavilions for immersion, the Hindu devotees danced and sang “kirton”.
Thousands of devotees joined the colorful marches as the idols were being carried to the nearby rivers particularly the river Padma, ponds, canals and other water bodies for immersion.
The Durgotsob was celebrated in 3,573 puja mandaps in all eight districts under the Rajshahi division in addition to 101 in Rajshahi city amid tight security measures this year.
Each of the puja mandaps was given 500 kilograms of rice on behalf of the respective district administrations for smooth celebration of the puja in the division this year. Rajshahi City Corporation has also provided Taka 20,000 to each of the puja mondaps in the city.
Members of police, and Ansar-VDP were on duty round-the-clock while officials, politicians and leaders of different socio-cultural organisations visited the mandaps.
