Dhaka, Jan 14 (IANS): The annual Muslim congregation Bishwa Ijtema has started in Tongi on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka with religious sermons for hundreds of thousands of devotees from home and abroad after a two-year Covid-19 hiatus.

This year's edition of the Bishwa Ijtema, or the World Congregation, began on Friday with the general sermons of Pakistani Islamic scholar Maulana Ziaul Haque after the morning prayers, reports Xinhua news agency.

The grand prayer of the three-day congregation will be held on Sunday, seeking divine blessings and the welfare of all mankind.

Local and foreign clerics have been speaking in Bangla, Urdu and other languages during the event.

The organisers have put up loudspeakers several kilometres away from the venue so that a large number of devotees could join the grand prayer.

Devotees from countries including India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Britain have joined the event.

To ensure security, several thousand members of law enforcement agencies were deployed around the venue.