The second phase of Bishwa Ijtema begins today amid countrywide blockade enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance. The religious meet will begin after Fajr prayers today and will end with Akheri Munazat on Sunday.
Additional law enforcement members have been deployed to ensure security for the Muslim devotees coming in to join the Ijtema this weekend, said Harun Or Rashid, superintendent of police in Gazipur, adding that the additional security will remain at the venue and the surrounding areas until it ends.
“We have already strengthened the security system as well as the traffic management for the second phase. We are helping the devotees on their way to join the Ijtema,” he said.
Engineer Gias Uddin, one of the organisers, said: “The Ijtema ground was cleaned after the first phase. It is now prepared and ready for the second phase.”
Mohammad Nurul Islam, deputy commissioner of Gazipur district, said the district administration was supervising the coordination among different departments following the instruction of the Ministry of Home Affairs to conduct the Ijtema smoothly until the end.
Two additional compartments have been added to each train transporting Ijtema devotees. Twenty magistrates will be in charge of the law and order at the venue.
People started coming in from Wednesday, and thousands have already reached the venue despite the countrywide blockade and hartal.
Abul Kalam, who came from Comilla, said: “Hartal and blockade cannot stop us from coming to this holy event.”
Abdus Salam, another devotee who came from Kurigram, said he had to come to Gazipur on a truck as there were no buses available due to the political unrest.
“There were 14 of us who came here on a truck. We suffered a lot due to the chilly weather, and some of us have caught cold,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
The second phase of the Ijtema will receive participants from 32 districts.
Two Ijtema devotees dead
Two of the devotees who came to join the second phase of Ijtema died due to health complications, sources at the venue said.
One of the deceased, Abdul Kuddus, 60, from Lakshmipur, had a heart attack around 7:30pm on Wednesday. He was rushed to Tongi Sadar Hospital, where the on-duty doctors pronounced him dead, said Abdul Baset, assistant land officer at Sreepur Telihatti union who is on duty at the control room of the district administration for the Ijtema.
The Namaz-e-Janaza for Kuddus was held after Fajr prayers yesterday, and he was buried in the graveyard near the Ijtema ground.
The other deceased was Abdur Rahman, 65, who came from Bogra. Mahbub Rahman Chowdhury, resident doctor at Tongi Sadar Hospital, said Rahman fell sick yesterday evening and was brought in to the hospital, where the on-duty doctor pronounced him dead around 4:30pm.
