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Durga puja ends

Staff Correspondent
The five-day-long Durga Puja, the greatest of all Hindu festivals, ended yesterday with solemn immersion of the Goddess Durga in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
Drenched in sudden rain in the evening devotees bade farewell to the mother deity and her children Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh through immersion of their idols in the water in tearful eyes while inviting her to return to them next year.
“I feel sad that our deity Durga is departing. 1 wish She returns with peace," said Sudipta Roy, a seven-year-old child at the mandap made by Shanghamitra Puja Committee in Shankhari Bazar.
"Everyone -- from a child to an aged -- are getting drenched in the rain. It is obviously a good omen and also a sign of virtue if it rains before the immersion," advocate Taposh Kumer Pal, general secretary of Mohanagar Sarbojanin Puja Committee toldThe Daily Star.
In the morning, devotees celebrated Bijoya Dashami. the last day of the festival, at around 24,000 puja mandaps, including 172 in the capital, across the country.
In the capital, streets leading to Sadarghat were filled with thousands of men. women and children who began thronging Buriganga to observe final part of the festival.
Dhakeswari National Temple brought out the historical Idols immersion procession, inaugurated by Maj
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Gen (retd) CR Dutta, from Melangan where thousands of devotees joined.
The procession carrying 32 idols in over 80 trucks ended at Waiz Ghat after parading different city streets. The immersion ghat was managed by Mohanagar Sarbojanin Puja Committee.
As their processions marched towards the river people were seen dancing to the rhythm of Dhak circling the idols being carried on Trucks and Pickups.
Earlier. Mohanagar Sharbojanin Puja Committee held programmes at 10:00am celebrating Bijoya Dashami. Prof AAMS Arefin Siddiqui inaugurated a blood donation programme.
The government took tight security measures as members of different law enforcement agencies escorted the processions. A huge number of law enforcers including members of Rapid Action Battalion stood guard over the puja mandaps and rivers where idols were immersed.
This year the number of mandaps has increased by around 2,500 across the country and nine in the city.
Bijoya Dashami is the special ceremony to reaffirm peace and good relations among the people. Families visited each other to share sweetmeats during the Dashami festivity. Married Hindu women put sindur on each other's forehead on the occasion. Now the Dashami is
more than a religious programme and a very significant part of Bengali tradition.
The entire Shankhari Bazar turned into a mandap as about eight puja mandaps were set up in the area in attractive designs.
The Durga Puja, the annual Hindu festival and also known as Sharadiya (autumnal) Durga Utsav, is the worship of "Shakti" or divine force embodied in Devi Durga. It symbolises the battle between good and evil where the dark forces eventually succumb to the divine.
The state-run and private television channels and radios aired special programmes while newspapers published special supplements on the great religious festival.
Our Cox's Bazar correspondent adds: Several kilometres area at Laboni Point of Cox's Bazar sea beach echoed with the slogans of "Maa Durga Ki Jai" yesterday afternoon.
Huge number of Hindu devotees of all ages joined the immersion of the idol. Thousands of local and foreign tourists, and Muslim men and women also watched the event.
The immersion of the idol started with an announcement from the Bijoy Mancha set up at Baluchar with the reciting from the Hindu Holy Scripture at around 6:00pm.
Carrying the idol of goddess on their shoulders the devotees went into waist deep water in the sea and immersed Maa Durga.