Rath Yatra, one of the major festivals of the Hindu community, is being celebrated across the country on Friday.
Organised by Bangladesh Pura Celebration Committee, the festival will feature 128 Rath Yatras (Chariot procession) nationwide, including Dhaka. Religious organisations and temple committees have drawn up various programmes to observe the festival, featuring traditional rope-pulling of the ‘Ratha’ (Chariot) by devotees.
The festivities in Dhaka began early Friday morning at 8am with the Agnihotra Yagya, a traditional fire ritual, for world peace and prosperity. A discussion session will be held at 1:30pm, followed by the inauguration of the chariot procession at around 3 pm.
The colorful procession will be brought out from Swamibagh Ashram and after traveling through Ittefaq Mor, Motijheel, Dainik Bangla, Baitul Mukarram North Gate, Press Club, High Court intersection, and Shaheed Minar, will conclude at Dhakeshwari Temple.
The reverse Rath Yatra (return journey) will take place on July 5.
More than 500 trained volunteers and law enforcement personnel will ensure safety. ISKCON expects lakhs of devotees to participate.
Earlier, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner SM Sazzat Ali in a coordination meeting held last week ahead of the festival, said adequate security measures have been taken to celebrate the Ratha Yatra smoothly, beautifully and safely.
The security measures include installation of adequate CCTV cameras and deployment of law enforces, including police, DB, SWAT, bomb disposal team and traffic police.
Every year the chariot procession is observed in the month of Ashar of Bangla Calender and the reverse Rath Yatra will be held after eight days.