POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Fab 2, 2025 : The first phase of the 58th Biswa Ijtema concluded with the final prayer. After the prayer, a huge crowd of people returning home was seen on the streets.
The final prayer, which began at 9:11 a.m. on Sunday (February 2), ended at 9:35 a.m. After the final prayer, millions of people started returning at once, creating huge queues everywhere.
The fight for people’s lives to board the trains waiting for the returning passengers at Tongi station was alarming. Thousands of people were seen risking their lives by hanging from the roofs and doors and windows of the trains, unable to find space inside. At one stage, there were no trains for people to see.
The inconvenience and hardship of the returning devotees knew no bounds as the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway and Ashulia road were closed to traffic.
Devotees who had gathered in Tongi for three or four days faced indescribable suffering when they tried to return to their respective destinations all at once after the final prayers.
Thousands of elderly people, children, teenagers and women walked for miles to join the prayer and returned the same way. Although limited traffic resumed after the prayer, the situation has not improved much. However, several devotees have complained that most of the vehicles are charging extra fares from the passengers.
Devout Muslims from different parts of the country have been rushing towards Tongi since Friday to participate in the final prayer. Apart from the participants of the Bishwa Ijtema, devotees from far and wide have reached Tongi in buses, trucks, pickups, minibuses, cars, microbuses, trains, launch-steamers and started taking up positions there. People from the capital and surrounding areas, ignoring various difficulties and hassles to avoid the crowd, headed towards Tongi at night.
Government and private offices, business establishments, shops, and educational institutions in the capital Dhaka, Gazipur, and Tongi were in a full holiday mood. As all types of traffic towards Tongi was stopped from late at night, millions of people had to walk long distances to reach Tongi.
Hundreds of thousands of people took shelter at night at the Ijtema grounds or in nearby homes, on the flyovers of the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, in various buildings, on the roofs or corridors of buildings, and even in treetops.
From the early hours of Sunday morning, a torrent of people wearing caps and Punjabis began to pour onto the empty roads, highways and riverbanks. As far as the eye could see, there were only people and people. By 7 am, the entire area had become a vast ocean of people.
Abdur Rahman, a devotee from Sylhet, told Kaler Kanth that after the last prayer, I was standing to go home, but the bus fare was too high.
