Our correspondent, Lalmonirhat
 
For nearly a century, members of the Hindu community have been celebrating their biggest festival, Durga Puja, and Muslims performing their prayers five times a day at a mosque sharing the same yard in the Kali temple of Sadar upazila in the district.
The temple and the mosque share the same yard, located barely three to five feet from each other, in the heart of the Lalmonirhat town.
Members of the Hindu community hold their various festivals in the temple yard, while Muslims perform their daily prayers in the mosque. Every year, Hindus celebrate Durga Puja in the space shared by the temple and a mosque. Several thousand Hindus have been coming here to worship for the past seven to decades. At the same time, Muslims perform their daily five-time prayers in the mosque without any disturbance.
As the Muslim prayer time approaches, the puja committee puts on hold the playing of gongs and bells.
Unless one sees for oneself, it is hard to believe how  people enjoy the festive mood of Durga Puja within the same yard where a mosque also stands.
It is an amazing example of religious harmony set by Hindus and Muslims, who perform their own prayers at the same place without ever disturbing each other.
Veterans narrating the temple’s history say it had been built towards the middle of the 19th century (around 1836), though some believe it was constructed towards the end of the 1800s. Later, after the partition of India in 1947, a mosque, which came to be known as the Puran Bazaar Jame Mosque, was built next to the temple. Some people, however, claim that the mosque was built at the beginning of the 1900s.
But whatever the actual date of the construction, members of both Muslim and Hindu communities take part in religious activities on the same piece of land without a hitch—in fact, there is a great deal of bonhomie among all the communities. Gobindi Das, adviser to the temple puja committee, told The Independent: “For decades, we, the leaders of the mosque and the temple managing committee, have been deciding how to arrange the programme peacefully. We are proud to have set a unique example in society.  While people are embroiled in communal clashes in many parts of the world, we have shown the highest tolerance of faith and sacrifice for the sake of mankind.”
Sudeb Kundo, a sweetmeat vendor, said his father once came here to sell various sweets during Durga Puja. After his father’s death, he has been coming to sell sweets for the last 30 years.
This is a unique example of religious tolerance on the part of Muslims and Hindus, he added.
Abul Fazal, president of the Puran Bazaar Mosque committee, told The Independent: “We help each other to celebrate our own festivals. We're proud to have maintained religious harmony and brotherly relations among the two communities.”
The priest of the temple, Sankor Chakroverty, said all kinds of ritualistic music is suspended to maintain silence during the prayer time of the Muslims.
Former US ambassador Dan Mojena had visited the place a few years ago. He had praised the locals' eagerness to keep religious harmony between the two communities.