KOLKATA, INDIA, October 11, 2005: Hindus in India and Nepal on Monday celebrated the start of the Durga Puja festival with colorful processions to honour the 10-armed deity revered for slaying a demon king. Durga Puja is celebrated with fervor by Bengalis, the ethnic group dominant in the eastern city of Kolkata, the capital of India’s West Bengal state, and in the world’s only Hindu kingdom of Nepal, where it is known as Dasain. More than 20,000 security personnel, including riot police and bomb squads, stood guard for the annual event, which brought tens of thousands of people into the streets, Kolkata city deputy police chief Anuj Sharma said. Security has been tightened at metro stations, the airport and other gateways to the city. Thousand of policemen have been deployed in worship places to guard the devotees, Sharma said. Devotees performed rituals such as washing banana trees in the holy Ganges Rivers as icons of Durga were carried under ornate canopies of bamboo in an informal competition to put on the most glitzy show. Durga Puja marks the start of more than a month of Hindu festivals in India and follows last week’s start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Meanwhile, in Bangladesh over 200,000 police and other security forces have been deployed to guard thousands of Hindu temples. State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar said on Sunday the government had taken tough measures to ensure Hindus were not disturbed or attacked during the Puja. But Hindu leaders have been worried about attacks this year following a spate of bomb attacks across the country blamed on Islamist militants. agencies