Durga Puja begins in Bangladesh at over 33,000 mandaps under tight security

Durga Puja, the biggest festival of Bangladesh's Hindu community, began on Friday, October 16, 2026, with Maha Shashthi, the sixth day of the bright fortnight, when the goddess is ceremonially awakened and her image unveiled. The five-day festival will run until Bijoya Dashami on Wednesday, October 21. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has said the puja is being held at more than 33,000 mandaps, or community worship venues, across the country this year, about 1,500 more than last year. The government has raised its grant for mandaps to Tk 5 crore from Tk 4 crore, deployed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel at puja venues, and declared public holidays that give the country a five-day break from October 20 to 24.

Durga Puja is shared heritage across the Bengali-speaking world. The same rituals that are now under way in Kolkata's pandals are being performed in Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and thousands of villages across Bangladesh. The first day's rites include Kalparambha, the formal beginning of the worship, and Bodhan, the awakening of the goddess, traditionally performed at a bel tree. At Dhakeshwari National Temple in Dhaka, the country's best-known Hindu shrine, the images had been installed and kept behind white curtains ahead of the unveiling, according to reports from Thursday.

The scale of the festival keeps growing. More than 33,000 mandaps is a large number for a minority community, and it reflects how deeply the puja is part of Bangladesh's cultural life. Many mandaps are run by neighbourhood committees and are open to visitors of all faiths. For Indian readers in West Bengal and the North-East, where the same festival is being celebrated this week, the puja in Bangladesh is a reminder of a tradition that the border has never divided.

Security has once again been a central theme. The government has split responsibility across national, divisional, district and upazila authorities, police have been compiling lists of volunteers, and organisers have been told to keep generators ready. The Home Minister said intelligence agencies had not flagged any mandap as especially high-risk. At the same time, a Dhaka puja committee has reported attacks on idols and temples in Sylhet, Rajbari, Panchagarh, Netrokona and Tangail in the run-up to the festival; earlier, the minister said reports of vandalism in some districts had not been confirmed.

Short-term: Millions of people will visit mandaps over the next five days, and the security deployment will be tested in crowded urban venues and remote border districts alike. Any incident at a mandap would draw attention in India as well as in Bangladesh.

Long-term: The rising number of mandaps and the larger state grant suggest the festival's public footprint is still growing. How peacefully it passes will shape how safe Bangladesh's Hindu community feels about practising its traditions openly in the years ahead.

Who is affected: Bangladesh's Hindu community and puja committees, visitors of all faiths who attend mandaps, security agencies, traders and artisans whose income depends on the festival, and Bengali families on both sides of the border.

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