A total of 72 couples tied knots on Saturday in a mass wedding without dowry at the Biswa Ijtema, the first phase of which ends today with the final prayer. The bride and groom were married after the Asr prayer at the bank of the Turag river, the Ijtema venue.

Millions of people thronged the second largest religious congregation on Saturday witnessing the historic mass marriage event.
After the wedding, millions of worshippers prayed for happy marriage lives for the newlyweds.

Habibullah Raihan, Media Coordinator of the Ijtema organising committee, said that Maulana Zobairul Hasan of India conducted the mass marriage event.

Meanwhile, Gazipur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mahbub Alam said that the final prayer of the first phase of the Biswa Ijtema will be held between 9am and 9:30am today. He added that they have beefed up security measures for this period.

On February 1 the first phase of Ijtema began after the Zuhr prayers and millions of worshipers from 47 countries of the world attended the holy event. India’s Maulana Abdur Rahman gave a sermon on Saturday which was translated into Bengali by Maulana Abdul Matin of Bangladesh. It was followed by a sermon by Maulana Ismail Godra of India.