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Durga Puja begins today

Star Report
**PUJA GREETING!
We wish our readers a happy Sharadiya Durga
Utsab. Let the celebration end on a note of communal harmony and prosperity.
Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu community, begins today with Maha Shashthi puja at temples across the country with due religious fervour.
Preparations at all the puja mandaps have almost been completed as artisans are busy giving the final touches to idols and pandals to mark the festival.
In separate messages, President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina conveyed greetings to the Hindu community members on the occasion.
The five-day Sharadiya Durga Utsab starts with Shashthi puja today, while the celebrations will end with the immersion of the idols of the Goddess Durga in the nearby rivers and water bodies across the country on October 8.
The incarnation (Bodhon) of the Goddess Durga was held at different temples ahead of the puja yesterday.
To mark the Shashthi today, recitation of the verses from the Holy Chandi and blowing of conch shells (Shankha) and beating of dhak-dhols (drums) will be heard at temples and pandals throughout the day.
Maha Saptami puja will be held tomorrow, Maha Ashtami, Kumari and Sandhi puja on Sunday, Maha Nabami puja on Monday and Bijoya Dashami on Tuesday.
"Though Durga Puja is a religious festival of the Hindu community, members of other communities also take part in the celebrations. This is the unique example of non-communal
Bangalee nation,” reports BSS, quoting Nirmal Kumar Chattarjee, general secretary of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad.
This year, Durga Puja will be celebrated at 31,398 permanent and temporary puja mandaps across the country, said the parishad.
The number of puja mandaps this year has increased by 483 from last year's 30,915.
According to the parishad, 237 puja mandaps will arrange Durga Puja in the capital, while the number of mandaps was 234 last year.
In the city, a largest number of devotees will be seen at the Dhakeshwari National Temple, Ramkrishna Mission and Math, Kalabagan, Banani, Shakhari Bazar, and Dhaka University Jagannath Hall puja mandaps.
Security has been beefed up in and around the puja pandals throughout the country, including the capital, with the deployment of additional members of Ansar, police, Rab, and other law enforcement agencies for peaceful celebration of the festival. Besides, voluntary groups will also be at the puja pandals.
Closed-circuit television cameras
(CCTVs), archways and metal detectors have been installed at all puja mandaps.
In new dresses, a large number of devotees will throng the city pandals, particularly the Dhakeshwari National Temple, and offer prayers before the Goddess Durga seeking peace, prosperity and welfare of the country and its people.
Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad and Mahanagar Sarbajanin Puja Committee this year decided that the immersion of idols of the Goddess Durga would have to be done by 10:00pm on the day of Bijoya Dashami across the country.
VANDALISM
Meanwhile, 13 incidents of vandalism took place in 11 districts last month during worship, Mahanagar Sarbajanin Puja Committee leaders told a press conference at the Dhakeshwari National Temple yesterday.
Reading out a statement, the committee's General Secretary Kishor Ranjan Mondal said the security plan of the law enforcement agencies was satisfactory. But the incidents of vandalism were a matter of great concern.