DHAKA, BANGLADESH, October 14, 2024 (The Hindu): In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, vast crowds celebrate the biggest Hindu festival of the year under tight security, after a spate of attacks against the minority following the ouster of the autocratic premier. Whirling dancers jump to ear-popping loud music for Durga Puja on Sunday, a joyful culmination of a week of prayer and party for the South Asian nation’s Hindu devotees, who make up less than a tenth of its 170 million people. “We pray for a better and inclusive Bangladesh,” said Sourav Das, 34, who works for a private company and came to the packed Dhakeshwari Hindu temple in the capital with his wife and family.

This year, the colorful celebrations are a defiant expression of faith, after the Hindu community was hit in the chaotic aftermath of a student-led revolution that forced the prime minister to flee. Sheikh Hasina fled by helicopter on August 5. Her 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents. Some Bangladeshi Hindus and Hindu temples were targeted in attacks in the chaos that followed, because some were perceived to have supported Ms. Hasina’s now toppled government. The attacks were condemned by the new caretaker government, and its leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus who visited the Dhakeshwari temple on Saturday to celebrate with Hindus what he called the auspicious occasion. But Hindu worshiper Das said all had been good. “We were a bit concerned initially as several incidents happened across the country, but now it seems better,” he said.

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https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/bangladeshi-hindus-defy-attack-worries-to-celebrate-festival/article68749564.ece

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