Muslims walk near temporary tents set up for the World Islamic Congregation on the banks of the river Turag in Tongi, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. -- PHOTO: AP
TONGI (Bangladesh) - AT LEAST 2.5 million Muslims joined prayers on Sunday near the Bangladeshi capital as part of the second largest annual Islamic festival after the Hajj to Mecca, officials said.
The normally congested streets of Dhaka were empty as devotees left work to gather on the banks of the river Turag for the end of the first phase of the Biswa Ijtema, or World Muslim Congregation.
The gathering, at which Muslims pray and listen to religious scholars, was first held in the 1960s at Tongi, some 30 kilometres north of Dhaka.
Dressed in traditional Islamic robes and caps, devotees set up prayer mats beneath a canopy stretching more than a kilometre while hundreds of thousands of people filled the open space available for the final prayer.
District police chief Mahfuzul Haq Nuruzzaman said at least 2.5 million devotees including thousands of foreigners attended a last prayer session lasting 20 minutes and led by a cleric from New Delhi.
'Devotees have filled up every space found on the roads, rooftops, boats and buses,' Mahfuzul Haq Nuruzzaman said, adding the Bangladesh president and the prime minister joined prayers capping the three-day long first phase of the festival. -- AFP
