Saad Kandhalvi returns to India in wake of protests

Indian Tabligh Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi has returned to Delhi after he was barred from the Biswa Ijtema, an Islamic congregation, following protests in Bangladesh.

“He left for India aboard a Jet Airways flight around 12pm on Saturday,” a top immigration police official told bdnews24.com.

Kandhalvi had helmed the Akheri Monajat at the second largest annual congregation for Muslims for the past three years following the death of Maulana Zubair-ul Hasan of India. Kandhalvi came to Bangladesh on Jan 10 for this year’s event.

But a faction of Tabligh Jamaat opposed to Kandhalvi’s leadership held a mass demonstration outside the Dhaka airport on Wednesday, crippling traffic in the northern part of the capital.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan held a meeting between the two factions on Jan 11. It was agreed that Kandhalvi would be barred from the event and return to India ‘at his convenience’.

A Bangladeshi, Maulana Abdul Matin, will preach to the congregation of millions on the bank of the River Turag before the closing prayers on Sunday, an organiser said.

The final prayers will be held from 10am to 11pm on Sunday.

The first phase of Ijtema began on Friday in Tongi.

The second phase will begin on Jan 19 and end on Jan 21 with similar closing prayers.

Indian Islamic scholar Mohammad Ilyas Kandhalvi started a reformist movement of Tabligh Jamaat for the Muslims in 1920. The movement is aimed at propagating values of Islam and therefore, refrains from discussing politics.

It is now the largest organisation of Sunni Muslims in the Indian subcontinent with the headquarters, referred to as the Markaz, in New Delhi. Its operations are conducted through 13-member central council, called the Nezamuddin.