Bangladeshi Hindus embrace festival celebrations amid security worries

In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, vast crowds celebrate the biggest Hindu festival of the year under tight security, after a spate of attacks against the minority following the ouster of the autocratic premier.

Whirling dancers jump to ear-popping loud music for Durga Puja on Sunday, a joyful culmination of a week of prayer and party for the South Asian nation's Hindu devotees, who make up less than a tenth of its 170 million people.

"We pray for a better and inclusive Bangladesh," said Sourav Das, 34, who works for a private company and came to the packed Dhakeshwari Hindu temple in the capital with his wife and family.

This year, the colorful celebrations are a defiant expression of faith, after the Hindu community was hit in the chaotic aftermath of a student-led revolution that forced the prime minister to flee.

Sheikh Hasina fled by helicopter on August 5 and was given shelter by old allies, the Hindu nationalist government of powerful neighbor India.

Hasina's 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.

 'Auspicious occasion'  

Some Bangladeshi Hindus and Hindu temples were targeted in attacks in the chaos that followed because some were perceived to have supported Hasina's now-toppled government.

The attacks were condemned by the new caretaker government and its leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus who visited the Dhakeshwari temple on Saturday to celebrate with Hindus what he called the "auspicious occasion".

On Sunday, security was tight around the Dhakeshwari temple as police and armed forces stood guard.

But Hindu worshipper Das said all had been "good".

"We were a bit concerned initially as several incidents happened across the country, but now it seems better," he said.

The festival recalls how the fierce demon-slaying goddess Durga visits her home from the icy peaks of the Himalayas where she lives with her husband, the destroyer-god Shiva.

A celebration of good over evil, the festival marks the goddess's killing of the buffalo demon Mahishasura.

At the center of the action are the dazzlingly-lit "pandals" -- a canopy built of colorful cloth hoisted up by bamboo poles -- which house intricate clay idols of the goddess and her children.

The clay idols, painstakingly crafted and painted in dazzling colors over weeks, were later immersed into the sacred waters that flow into the sea, the festival's finale.

Student Bristi Saha, 24, came with her younger sister to pray to the goddess, saying she had asked her to protect Bangladesh.

"We pray to her that the country remains safe," Saha said. "As long as the country is fine, everything is fine."

  'From the heart'  

At the temple, devotees snapped photographs of themselves with the painted idol of Durga, while young women danced.

"Hail to Durga!" they chanted.

Saha said the situation in the city was different than in the countryside.

"Personally, I don't feel any insecurity as I live in a city," she said.

"But some people in the rural areas are a little concerned because of these incidents."

But Kajol Debnath, 77, one of the founders of Dhaka's Puja Celebration Council, said that "scattered incidents" in recent months had not marred the grand party.

He said Bangladeshis of all religions and politics had come together to celebrate an "inclusive" festival.

"We say, religion belongs to individuals and festivals to all," Debnath said.

"The political parties and different social groups came and helped us organise the puja this year", he added, something he said he wanted to continue in the future.

"We hope it will remain as something from the heart, not as a mere lip service."