Cultural groups staged concerts, sang classical, spiritual, and folk songs using traditional instruments such as 'dhols' and flutes to mark the New Year 1421.
The Ramna Batamul park here drew the largest crowd as leading cultural group 'Chhayanat' performed Rabindranath Tagore's song 'Esho he Baisakh'.
Artists dressed in symbolic red, green and yellow dresses enthralled audience with their performances that depicted the lifestyle of rural Bengal.
The 'Mongol Shobhajatra' (march for well-being), organised by students of the Fine Arts Institute of Dhaka University, was another attraction. People joined the procession sporting festoons, replicas of animals and other traditional symbols.
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In 2001, banned Islamist outfit Harkatul Jihad Bangladesh (Huji-B) had carried out grenade attacks at the Ramna Batamul killing 10 people and wounding dozen others during the new year celebrations that they termed as "anti-Islamic".
Security officials in plain clothes were also deployed.
People, however, celebrated the New Year defying rightwing calls against such programmes.
President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leader of the parliamentary opposition Jatiya Party Raushan Ershad, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief and former premier Khaleda Zia besides former president and Jatiya Party chief HM Ershad greeted people on the occasion.
Hasina said: "The Bangla New Year rekindles our nationalist spirit... There were attacks again and again. People were killed in bombings. But no evil attempt of the fanatics, communal forces ever succeeded."
Mughal Emperor Akbar introduced the tradition of celebrating the Bangla New Year.