Muted Durga Puja celebrations in Delhi as terror shadow looms

New Delhi, Oct 9 (UNI) It was a somewhat subdued celebration that marked the Durga Puja festivities in the Capital today.

Apart from the predominantly Bengali localities like Chittaranjan Park, the festivities in most of the Durga Puja Pandals across the Capital city, while drawing big crowds as every years, were muted with the security blanket thrown all around in the wake of the blasts that rocked the city last month.

Chhittaranjan Park, however, witnessed a ever-flowing crowd of people thronging to the Durga Puja Pandals till the immersion of the Durga idols.

Neverthless, the celebrations at Chittaranjan Park, as well as elsewhere in the city, were muted with the police strict guidelines, in view of the September 13 terror bombings, to put an end to the festivities by midnight acting as a dampener.

Infact, residents of the areas admitted that the crowd thronging various areas housing the Durga Puja Pandals had decreased to almost half, in some cases even one fourth of that witnessed last year, the major reason being the strict security put in place by the authorities.

For example, the security in many Durga Puja Pandals in North Delhi areas was so strict so as to serve as a deterrent for those visiting these places.

''The security was quite stringent.

Apart from physically frisking each person, we also checked the vegetables, especially the brinjals, that came for the bhog (holy offering) to check for possible bombs,'' a Delhi police official said.

The festivities came to an end today with the immersion of the idols in the Yamuna.

UNI AR KK RK1720