Followers of Indian Islamic preacher Maulana Muhammad Saad Al Kandhalvi will take part in the ongoing Biswa Ijtema on Sunday (Feb 16) after Fajr prayers through ‘A’m Bayan (general sermons) and hold their Akheri Munajat on Tuesday (Feb 19).
Syed Wasiful Islam, who leads the Tabligh faction that follows Indian preacher Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, will supervise the congregation and the Akheri Munajat.
The congregation was set to end on Monday (Feb 18) but the Saad followers sought one more day.
“Devotees have come from all over the world. We sought one more day from the government and have been granted permission verbally,” Moulana Abdullah Mansur, a moorubbi (senior scholar) of Saad followers, told Bangla Tribune.
Mansur said they would continue the congregation till Tuesday.
Earlier, the 54th Biswa Ijtema, one of the largest congregations of Muslims, began through A’m Bayan after Fajr prayers on the bank of river Turag at Tongi under Gazipur district on Feb 15 with the participation of followers of Maulana Zubair Hassan, who leads one of the factions of Tabligh Jamaat.
The Akheri Munajat of followers of Zubair, imam of the Kakrail mosque in Dhaka, was held this morning around 11 am while Hefazat-e-Islam Ameer Shah Ahmad Shafi joined it.
Thousand of devotees from home and abroad took part at 24-minute Akheri Munajat on the Ijtema ground.
Senior Islamic scholar of Kakrail mosque Hafez Mawlana Mohammad Zubaer led the prayer both in Bangla and Arabic languages.
After completion of Akheri Munajat, followers of Maulana Saad started entering the Ijtema ground in groups while followers of Zubair were leaving the ground, Gazipur Metropolitan Police (GMP) assistant commissioner Ruhul Amin Sarker told BSS.
Biswa Ijtema, which was earlier used to be held in two phases since 2011 to accommodate a large number of devotees from home and abroad, is being arranged in a single phase this year.
On Jan 24, the government announced the schedule of Ijtema following a meeting with two factions of Tabligh Jamaat.
On Dec 1, the two factions of Tabligh Jamaat were locked into infighting on the Ijtema ground in Tongi that resulted to defer the Ijtema from Jan 11 to Feb 15.
Tabligh Jamaat has been organising the Ijtema at the venue since 1967 while the Ijtema is being held in Bangladesh every year from 1946.