Bangladesh today celebrated Pahela Baishakh, the first day of the Bangla New Year 1420, with traditional fervour and gaiety. Thousands of people gathered at Ramna Park in Dhaka , the main venue of the celebrations, at sunrise and joined the singers of the cultural organisation Chhayanaut to sing songs written by Rabindranath Tagore to welcome the new year. The Dhaka University’s Fine Arts Institute brought out a ‘Mangal Shobhajatra’, a procession seeking well being for all, with its marchers wearing traditional dresses and colorful masks parade. Pahela Baishakh was celebrated at more than 30 venues in the capital, including the main venue Ramna Batamul and Dhanmondi's Rabindra Sarobor. Political parties, social and cultural organisations celebrated the day organising various programmes to mark the occasion. In a message issued on the occasion of Pahela Baisakh, Acting President of Bangladesh, Mr. Abdul Hamid hoped that the Bangla New Year will strengthen unity in national life putting behind the past differences and bringing unlimited pleasure. In her message issued on the occasion, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that the Bangla New Year is the source of non-communal spirit of Bangalees and hoped that the New Year would bring happiness, progress and pleasure to the lives of all Bangalees by sinking old fatigue and stigma. She also asserted that Bangladesh will be a non-communal democratic country and the country will be run in keeping with the spirit of the Madinah Charter of Prophet Mohammad” that charted out principles of religious harmony and coexistence. More than 12,500 police and Rab personnel were deployed in Dhaka to prevent any untoward incidents during the New Year celebrations. Security has been beefed up in the light of the bomb explosions in 2001 at Ramna Batamul during Pahela Baishakh celebrations which had left ten dead. Later in the evening the Protesters at Shahbagh’s Ganajagaran Mancha are scheduled held a mass rally in Dhaka to mark the new year and to promote communal harmony and to reiterate their demand for death penalty for all the war criminals of 1971.