The roads in and around the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka is completely gridlocked following protests over the arrival of a top religious scholar from India to attend the Biswa Ijtema on Wednesday.
More than 500 people, belonging to a faction of Islamic ideological movement Tabligh Jamaat, have demonstrated.
Police said the demonstrators protested the arrival of the Islamic organisation’s supreme council member Saad Kandhalvi from India.
“The Tabligh Jamaat is split over Saad Kandhalvi’s leadership. A faction is opposing his arrival,” Airport Police OC Noor-a-Azam t said.
Protests started around 9am, before Kandhalvi’s arrival in Dhaka.
Residents said the protesters gathered in front of a local mosque in the morning and started demonstrating, hampering traffic on the road.
Police have intervened but the demonstration disrupted traffic on one of the busiest roads in the city, which leads to some national highways.
Tabligh Jamaat is the largest organisation of Sunni Muslims in the Indian subcontinent. Its headquarters, referred to as the Markaz, is based in New Delhi. Its operations are conducted through 13-member central council, called the Nezamuddin.
Kandhalvi has recently announced himself as the chief of the body, which created a rift among the senior members of the Tabligh Jamaat’s Bangladesh chapter.
In November, a scuffle broke out between two groups on the premises of Dhaka’s Kakrail Mosque, the headquarters of Tabligh Jamaat’s Bangladesh chapter.
In an effort to avoid such untoward incidents in future, an advisory council was formed.
“Protests are being held across the country over his arrival,” said bdnews24 citing the organisation’s member Abdul Quddus.
