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In Pictures: Holi celebrations in Bangladesh

Millions in the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh, celebrate the festival of colours with great fervor.

Students throw coloured powder as they celebrate Holi in the building of Fine Arts Institute, Dhaka University.
By Mahmud Hossain Opu
Published On 20 Mar 2014

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Holi is the festival of colours, fun and frolic and is celebrated by millions of Hindus in the Indian subcontinent to welcome the spring.

An ancient Hindu festival, Holi is marked as a triumph of good over evil, and has become popular among non-Hindu populations in South Asia.

In Bangladesh, many members from the Muslim community also join their Hindu neighbours to celebrate the festival by smearing abeer (a coloured powder) and spraying water colours on each other.

Students at universities and colleges in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, and elsewhere get drenched in colour, singing and dancing together.

For the Hindu community, who constitute about 10 percent of the population, this festival brings a message of unity and friendship and helps in bridging the communal divide.

People forget about the caste barriers, as riot of colours acts as a great leveler, keeping the true spirit of Holi.

The Hindu community in Wari near Dhaka colour their faces with blue depicting the Hindu god Krishna.

Revelers smear others with colour to mark start of the spring.
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Colours fly in the sky as revelers throw abeer at each other.
Students daubed in coloured powder shout as they celebrate Holi.
Two students pose for a picture at the Dhaka University.
Two men daubed in colour shout as they enjoy the celebrations.
A girl poses in a dancing style with a bucket of coloured water at Wari near Dhaka.
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A man seen jumping at the revelers near Dhaka.
A little boy sprays water colour during Holi celebrations at Shankhari Bazar on the outskirts of Dhaka.
A young boy has his face smeared with colours.
Boys carrying plastic bottles filled with coloured water greet people by spraying colour at them.
Devotees of the Hindu god, the Lord Shiva, spray and splash colours onto one another near Dhaka.
People enjoying colours being sprayed at them.
Smeared with colours, a girl blowing colour powder in the air at Shankhari Bazar.
A child stands in front of the painting of Lord Shiva at Wari.