Dhaka: Following the protest of a group of Tabligh Jamaat followers, Indian scholar Maulana Saad Kandolvi will not join the first phase of the 53^rd 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.