Devotees participate in the jumma prayers on a road stretch passing by the Bishwa Ijtema ground at Tongi near the capital on Friday on the first day of the second phase of of the congregation. — New Age photo

The second phase of Biswa Ijtema began on the bank of the River Turag on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka on Friday.
People swarmed the Ijtema ground during the jumma prayers as Maulana Zobair Hasan of the Kakrail Tabligh Mosque conducted Friday’s congregational prayers.
Many devotees said the jumma prayers on the roads and the highway passing by the ground for shortage of space in the venue.
Ismail Godra of India delivered sermons after the fajr prayers, Maulana Mohammad Hossain of Bangladesh after the jumma prayers, Jobayrul Hasan of India after the asr prayers and Maulana Sa’as of India after the maghrib prayers.
Sermons were translated into languages such as Bengali, English, Arabic, Tamil, Malay, Turkish and French.
Various programmes such as mass wedding without dowry and the enlistment of devotees for preaching Islam will be held today.
Four devotees have so far died of cardiac arrests in this phase of the congregation till Friday evening. They were Afjzal Hossain, 60, from Bogra, Md Najir Ahmed, 55 from Comilla, Md Badal Fakir,70, from Gopalganj and Md Samsul Haque,70, from Khulna. Thirteen people, including one from India, died in the first phase of the this year’s congregation that began on January 11 and ended on January 13.