Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will be visiting several Hindu Temples in the country as Durga Puja festivities begin. The move is being seen as a major outreach to the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh. Rahman’s government has already increased the grant for this year’s Durga Puja to 5 crore taka or about 4 crore in Indian rupees and extended the holiday for government employees to five days during the celebrations.
However, in the elections held early this year, the hardline Bangladesh Jamaat-E-Islami won all seats in the area and the Prime Minister’s travel across country outside Dhaka is seen as an effort to outline the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s credentials in the absence of the Awami League in the politics. On Tuesday, Rahman said his government is committed to ensure the rights and security of every citizen of the country irrespective of their religious identity. Rahman will visit a temple in Rangpur in nothern Bangladesh, an area where the Hindu community has faced attacks. On that occasion, he walked from his office at Bangladesh Secretariat to Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital to attend the Janmashtami programme as the chief guest. The constituency is represented by Rahman in the National Parliament and includes high profile areas of Dhaka city like Gulshan (including Gulshan Diplomatic Zone), Banani, Baridhara (Residential and Diplomatic Zone) and Dhaka Cantonment areas.
Because he traveled to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) during the festival week, however, he did not attend the actual Durga Puja celebrations in 2025. In 2025, Bangladesh’s Interim Government’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus visited the Dhakeshwari Temple ahead of the Durga Puja festival. In 2023, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also visited the Dhakeshwari Temple during Durga Puja celebrations which was the last Durga Puja before she was ousted from office in August 2024. Rahman made the comments during an interaction with members of the Hindu community from the Dhaka-17 constituency.
Earlier this year, Rahman attended a Janmashtami programme in Dhaka to exchange greetings with prominent members of the Hindu community on the occasion of Janmashtami and to distribute honorariums among priests and sebaits.
