Tens of thousands of people gathered on a riverbank near Bangladesh’s capital on Friday to listen to sermons by Islamic scholars at the Biswa Ijtema, or global congregation of Muslim devotees.
The three-day annual event will end on Sunday when hundreds of thousands of Muslims are expected to join final prayers like every year. This is the first phase of Biswa Ijtema, while the second phase will be held on February 3-5. The third phase will be held on February 14-16.
Biswa Ijtema is one of the largest gatherings of Muslim devotees, held on the sandy banks of the Turag river in Tongi, just north of Dhaka, the capital.
The event dates back to the 1950s when the Tablighi Jamaat movement started hosting the event.
On Friday, Muslims joined the weekly afternoon prayers as many more continued to stream towards the venue from across Bangladesh.
About 2,150 foreign Muslims from 72 countries were among the tens of thousands of Bangladeshis who joined the first phase of the congregation, said Habibullah Raihan, a spokesman of the organising committee.
