Indian cleric lead second largest prayer gathering in Bangladesh

An Indian cleric led some four million Bangladeshi Muslims and thousands of foreigners at a mass prayer near the capital today to conclude the second largest gathering of believers after the Hajj.
   
Amid tight security, president Zillur Rahman, prime minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia joined the 25-minute concluding prayers at the annual three-day 'Bishwa Ijtema' led by Indian Maulana Jobayrul Hasan of New Delhi.
   
Officials said they enforced a three-tier security system including some 20,000 security personnel on the eastern bank of the Turag River at the industrial town of Tongi, just north of the capital.
   
The World Congregation of Muslims aims to revive the tenets of Islam and promote peace through prayer.
      
According to organisers, some 4 million Muslims including 25,000 from 80 countries attended the 'akheri munajat' or concluding prayers.
   
Islamic scholars from Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Morocco, Bahrain, Algeria, Palestine, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon delivered sermons.
      
Bangladesh has been hosting the congregation organised by New Delhi-based Tablig Jamaat since 1946.
   
The first such gathering was held at Kakrail Mosque in the capital way back in 1946, the second one in Chittagong in 1948. Since 1966 it has been organised at Pagar in Tongi.