Ratha Yatra festival begins🎉

A nine-day Ratha Yatra, the chariot festival of Sri Jagannath Dev, one of the major festivals of the Hindu community, began across the country on Sunday amid due religious fervor and festivity. 

According to the Hindu calendar, the festival begins on Dwitiya Tithi of Shukla Paksha in the month of Aashar. The festival will come to an end with the Ulto Ratha Yatra (reverse journey) on July 15.

In observance of the festival, different religious bodies and temple committees have drawn up various programs across the country.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) chalked out a nine-day program in Dhaka. Their event at Swamibag in Dhaka began with the holding of Agnihotra Jagna seeking divine blessings for world peace and people’s welfare. 

A discussion was also held at the venue in the afternoon. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan took part in the discussion as the chief guest.

The country’s largest Ratha Yatra procession was brought out in Dhamrai, which is said to be the largest Ratha Yatra in the sub-continent after India. 

Thousands of people from different districts came to witness the opening of the ceremony. The queue stretched up to 1.5 kilometres and all of them were waiting to witness the ceremony. 

People from across the border also came to witness the country’s largest Ratha Yatra. 

Meanwhile, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque inaugurated the Sri Sri Manikkyo Madhob Ratha Yatra in Gazipur. To celebrate the occasion, a Ratha Mela (fair) has also been organized in the Rathkhola area of Gazipur. Stalls of various items including wooden toys, utensils, and sweets have been erected at the fair. 

In Barisal, Iskcon organized a Ratha Yatra from the Sri Sri Jagannathdev temple premises. Earlier, a discussion was organized at the same venue. 

State Minister for Water Resources Zaheed Farooque in his speech as the chief guest at the event said that people are living in harmony in a non-communal state under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Barisal-4 lawmaker Pankaj Nath also spoke at the event.

Meanwhile, five people were killed and at least 20 injured—some of them critically—by electrocution during a Ratha Yatra in Bogra’s Seujgari area. 

Four of the deceased were identified as Alok Sarkar, 40, Atashi Rani, 40, Ranjita Mohonto, 60, and Naresh Mohonto, 65. The identity of another woman could not be confirmed yet.

According to police and locals, the Ratha Yatra started at the Iskcon temple in Seujgari at around 5 pm. When the chariot reached the Seujgari Amtala Mor area about 15 minutes later, its top came into contact with an overhead high-voltage electric wire, causing a fire on the chariot.