In a unique show of communal harmony, Hindus and Muslims of Odisha on Sunday observed their respective festivals of Bhasani (immersion of idols of Goddess Durga) and Muharram peacefully without any reports of communal tension from anywhere.
In order to ensure smooth and peaceful observances of the two festivals, the police administrations in several districts had intervened to ensure that the routes and timings of the religious processions associated with the festivals did not clash. In some areas, the organisers took out their processions on Monday.
The police had also beefed up security arrangements in some vulnerable localities of certain districts, which were identified to be “communally surcharged” locations.
The police heads of the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, Kendrapada, Bhadrak, Balaeswar, Sambalpur and Rourkela were specifically asked to remain alert.
The festivals were observed very cheerfully in the cities of Cuttack and Sambalpur where both Hindus and Muslims joined each others’ festivals without any inhibitions and bringing in universal brotherhood during observations of the two festivals on the same day.
“The festivals of the two communities went off peacefully in the entire State without any untoward incident reported from anywhere,” said a senior police officer manning the control room at the police headquarters here.
In Cuttack, Muslims took out their Tazia procession in the morning; and later in the evening, they were also seen enthusiastically participating in the tableau procession of Goddess Durga.In Sambalpur, Hindus were seen participating in Tazia procession.
After the four-day Durga Puja, which ended with Vijaya Dasami and Ravan Podi on Saturday, many puja committees of Cuttack immersed the clay idols of the goddess after taking them in grand processions on Saturday night itself. Barring a few, all the 170 mandaps, immersed their idols in various water bodies of the city on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
There was, however, a minor scuffle between the procession parties of Bamphi Sahi and Tala Telengabazar. With the intervention of police, normalcy was restored soon.