Largest Eid congregation held at Sholakia
Dhaka: The largest Eid-ul-Fitr congregation of the country was held on the historic Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj on Saturday.
About 3,00,000 devotees offered the prayers amid stringent security measures. The first Eid congregation on this ground was held in 1828. This year’s was the 188th Eid congregation at Sholakia.
Maulana Faird Uddin Masud conducted the congregation at 10:00am.
Three gunshots were fired in the sky before five minutes, two shots before three minutes, and a gunshot prior one minute to starting the prayers to alert the devotees.
A special prayer was offered seeking peace, welfare and prosperity of the mankind and the nation.
Devotees were allowed to enter the ground through 28 entrance gates after undergoing a thorough search.
The entire ground was brought under a four-tier security net with deployment of large numbers of law enforcers including police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and different intelligence personnel.
Special trains operated on Bhairab-Kishoreganj and Kishoreganj-Mymensingh routes on the occasion.
Different TV channels covered the congregation live.
It is believed that the name of Sholakia came from ‘Shoa Lakh’ where 125,000 people joined the Eid-ul-Fitr prayers.
Having about seven acres of land, the Eidgah stands on the bank of Narosunda River.