The second phase of the three-day Biswa Ijtema, the second largest congregation of Muslims after Hajj, ended on the banks of the Turag River in Tongi on Sunday through the ‘Akheri Munajat’ (final prayers).
Maulana Mohammad Jamshed of India’s Delhi conducted the final prayers, said Maulana Syed Wasiful Islam. It concluded shortly after 12pm.
According to the Ijtema Organizing Committee, Muslim devotees from all around the world participated in the munajat including a 32 member delegation of Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz.
Earlier, Maulana Iqbal Hafiz of India conducted sermons on different aspects of Islam in the light of the holy Quran and Hadith on Saturday.
Thousands of Muslim devotees from home and abroad gathered on the Ijtema ground to join the Akheri Munajat of the three-day second phase of the Bishwa Ijtema that began on Friday amid intensified security measures.
The 55th edition of the Biswa Ijtema began on Friday with general sermons after Fazr prayers with the participation of followers of Indian Islamic preacher Maulana Muhammad Saad Al Kandhalvi.
Devotees from home and abroad thronged the banks of Turag to take part in Ijtema.
Indian Islamic scholar Maulana Mohammad Mursalin conducted sermon after Fazr prayers that were translated in Bangla by Mufti Azimuddin on Saturday.
Meanwhile, five devotees died at the Ijtema venue during the second phase of Biswa Ijtema.
Md Anwar Hossain, commissioner of Gazipur Metropolitan Police, said that they arranged extra buses and special train services for smooth movements of devotees.
A number of 16 special trains from Bangladesh Railway and more than a hundred BRTC buses were availed to ease out the traveling of the devotees ahead of the congregation.
Vehicular movements remain suspended from Saturday midnight to Sunday afternoon on the Airport to Joydebpur intersection of the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway, Mirer Bazar to Tongi bus stop of the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway via Gazipur and Kamarpara to Ashulia road.
According to Zila and Metropolitan Police, 8,500 members of additional forces of different law enforcement agencies were deployed besides the five tiers security measures taken inside the ground.
Apart from the security measures taken for inside the venue, searching booths and CCTV cameras were also been installed at different points.
Bishwa Ijtema Police Control Room sources said a total of 10 devotees died due to old-age complications, illnesses and accident during the second phase at the Ijtema venue, since Friday.
The total death tolls of the devotees in the 55th Bishwa Ijtema stood at 23 so far, including 13 in the first phase.
The first phase of three-day Biswa Ijtema ended on January 12 where followers of Maulana Zubair Hassan, the imam of Kakrail mosque, took part.
Tabligh Jamaat has been organising the congregation at the venue since 1967.
