Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, top scholar of Indian Tabligh Jamaat who could not join the first phase Biswa Ijtem following opposition by a faction of Bangladesh Tabligh, went back to India on Saturday.

He left Dhaka by a Jet Airways flight around 12:50pm, said sources at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, reports the UNB.

Following the opposition from a faction of Tabligh Jamaat to Saad Kandhalvi’s joining the Ijtema, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Thursday had a meeting with the Sura members of Bangladesh Tabligh Jamaat and five members of ‘Alem Advisory Committee’ at his ministry to settle the issue.

After the meeting, he said Saad Kandhalvi would not join the 53rd Biswa Ijtema and would go back to India at his convenient time.

Earlier on January 10, a large number of Tabligh Jamaat men put barricade on Airport Road intersection from 12 noon to 4:30 pm protesting the arrival of the Indian Tabligh Jamaat scholar to take part in the Biswa Ijtema following his controversial comments about religious issues, creating huge tailbacks in the area.

He was scheduled to join the three-day first phase of the 53rd Biswa Ijtema, the second largest congregation of the Muslim community after holy hajj, began on January 12 on the bank of the Turag River in Tongi.