Following the protest of a group of Tabligh Jamaat followers, Indian scholar Maulana Saad Kandolvi will not join the first phase of the 53rd Biswa Ijtema the second largest congregation of the Muslim community after the holy hajj, to be held from January 12-14 on the bank of the Turag River.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia on Thursday morning told journalists according to government’s decision; Moulana Saad is not going to join Ijtema. He has been kept at capital’s Kakrail Mosque amid tight security.

Earlier, on Wednesday afternoon, a group of Tabligh Jamaat followers demonstrated in Dhaka airport area in protest against the arrival of a top leader of the organisation from India, creating huge traffic congestions on major roads there.

A good number of Tabligh Jamaat men put up a barricade at Airport Road intersection around 12:00noon as they got information that Indian Tabligh Jamaat scholar Maulana Saad Kandolvi arrived in Dhaka.

Saad Kandolvi reached the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by a Thai Airways flight around 1:30pm.

However, the Tabligh Jamaat activists did not withdraw the barricade till 4:00pm, disrupting traffic on the roads from Kakoli to Gazipur.

Saad Kandolvi was scheduled to join the first phase of the 53rd Biswa Ijtema, to be held from January 12-14 on the bank of the Turag River.