The five-day Durga Puja, the largest religious festival of the Hindu community, concluded on Saturday with the immersion of the idols of goddess Durga across the country, including the capital Dhaka.

This year, puja was offered at some 28,458 mandaps across the country, including 219 in Dhaka city. Last year, the number was 28,000, including 212 in the capital.

According to Hindu faith, goddess Durga comes down to Earth from the Heaven to establish peace, harmony by annihilating evil forces.
In the capital, thousands of people will throng the river Buriganga to observe the final phase of the festival—the immersion of the goddess Durga.

In the capital Dhaka, the idols of goddess Durga were immersed in the river Buriganga through colourful Bijoya processions under the auspices of the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad and Mohanagar Sarbajanin Puja Committee. Hundreds of devotees and visitors thronged the Puja mandaps at Dhakeshwari Mandir, Ramkrishna Mission, Tanti Bazar, Shankhari Bazar and Swamibagh in the capital from the morning.

The devotees from different puja mandaps in the capital started thronging at the Dhakeshwari National Temple premises with idols of goddess Durga on trucks to take part in Bijoya procession and immersion of idols. Before the Bijoya procession, the married women put the vermillion on their heads taking from the goddess Durga's head.

On the other hand, the men prayed for the destruction of evil forces

They also expressed the hope that the goddess Durga would come back again at every Bengali Hindu families in the next autumn.

A large number of police and Rab members were deployed at different temples and on the way to the river Buriganga on Saturday.