Bishwa Ijtema is the second largest gathering of Muslims around the world. A couple of hundred thousand Muslim devotees from all 64 districts of the country started gathering at the Ijtema venue from Thursday morning along with Muslims from all over the world are taking part in the Ijtema. The "a'm bayan" (general sermons) of the first phase started from Thursday evening instead of Friday morning. Besides, free medical camps have been set up near the Ijtema ground to provide free health care services and medicines among the devotees. However, the Ijtema is held in two phases since 2011 to ease the accommodation and transportation problem.

Source: Dhaka Tribune February 14, 2019 16:41 UTC