The High Court has described a petition filed with it seeking orders to hold the Bishwa Ijtema as “shameful”.

The remarks by the bench of justices JBM Hassan and Md Khairul Alam came on Tuesday (Jan 22) during the initial hearing of the plea filed by one Yunus Mollah.

The petition filed on Monday seeks to uphold a directive issued in September that set out a 5-point plan of actions for the Ijtema before it was withdrawn by the court’s order in just 5 days.

While hearing the petition, the court said, “How will you (the followers of Tabligh) preach Islam if you are divided into groups?

“You lock into clashes and then move the court, which is shameful.”

The court instructed the petitioner to resolve the issues among the Tabligh factions and assured that the matter will be heard then.

Petitioner’s counsel Nurul Amin told the court that if the two groups of Tabligh fail to reach a negotiation both parties will hold the Ijtema separately as instructed by the government.

Meantime, Deputy Attorney General Motahar Hossain informed that court that specific instructions Ijtema may come from an urgent meeting of the home ministry, scheduled to be held on Wednesday (Jan 22).

The court then fixed Jan 27 for the next hearing, when it will also give its decision.

On Dec 1 last year, a man was killed and more than 200 people were injured in a series of clashes between two factions of Tabligh Jamaat for establishing control over Ijtema grounds on the bank of the Turag River in Tongi.

The clash took placed between the supporters of Tabligh Jamaat leader of India Moulana Zubayer Hassan and Tabligh top leader Maulana Saad Kandhalv.

This conflict between the two factions was said to be the continuation of the trouble began in the 2017 Biswa Ijtema, the annual event of Tabligh Jamaat and the largest Muslim congregation after the hajj.

The first phase of Bishaw Ijtema was due to begin in January but was delayed over the leadership conflicts between the two factions of Tabligh.

The Election Commission also issued an order banning any kind of congregation at Tongi Ijtema field prior to the Dec 30 election.

Despite the ban, the followers of Delhi Markaz's leader Moulana Mohammed Saad Kandhalvi announced a five day long Jor Ijtema and the followers of Deoband leader Moulana Zubayer took up positions around the Tongi field and the nearby areas.

As the followers of Saad could not enter the Ijtema area, they took up positions in the nearby mosques.

The clash erupted when hundreds of Saad followers began to march towards Tongi on Dec 1.

The groups locked into another clash over the conflict at Dhaka’s Kakrail Mosque, the headquarters of the religious group’s Bangladesh chapter, in April last year.