Bangladesh celebrates Bengali New Year amid security vigil.

Byline: Thousands of revellers stream through the streets of Dhaka as security forces mount extra vigil.

Dhaka: Thousands of new year revellers streamed through Dhaka streets as security forces kept a sharp eye as part of increased security ahead of the biggest Bengali carnival to celebrate Pahela Baishakh.

Men in traditional punjabi and pyjama, and women in white and red saris, joined the celebrations along with children in colourful attires as dozens of other cultural groups ushered in the first day of the Bangla year 1416 with songs and other performances at different city parks.

Chhayanaut, a major cultural organisation, organised the day's centerpiece event, Ramna Batamul, at central part of the city while the anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) with sniffer dogs circled round the park as part of the security vigil against militant attacks.

Officials said as many as 5,256 policemen and 3,000 RAB personnel were deployed to oversee security in the capital while security agencies installed 32 CCTV cameras at the entry and exit points of the Ramna Batamul alongside mobilising bomb squads, dog squads and reserved forces.

"[But] the fears of sabotage could not mar the festivity," Lina Fardows Kakoli, a public relation executive serving a multinational group, said as she joined the celebration along with friends.

The revellers sang and danced with one group wearing colourful masks or carried symbolic figures to protest fundamentalism, militancy and corruption as they marched through the nearby Dhaka University campus.

The home ministry earlier ordered extra security vigil as part of the intensified security campaign against militants, which also witnessed the arrest of 10 suspected operatives of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), including a close associate of the outfit's hanged chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman, from different parts of the country.

At least 12 people were killed as outlawed Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami carried out a bomb attack on Bengali new year revellers in 2001 at the Ramna Batamul.

Ten people were earlier killed and more than 100 injured in an explosion at a cultural function of left leaning Udichi in western Jessore on March 6, 1999.

The Pahela Baishakh celebration has its roots in the days of great Mughal emperor Akbar (1556-1609) when peasants used to pay their taxes to the emperor.

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