LAHORE: The first phase of the three-day annual Tableeghi Ijtima concluded at Raiwind on Sunday.

The congregation had started on Friday. A large number of people reached the venue while thousands more could not make it to the event due to blockade of roads by protests by a religious party.

The Pakistan Railways operated special trains to facilitate the participants while the Lahore Transport Company also ran a shuttle service.

Noted religious scholars Haji Abdul Wahab, Maulana Tariq Jameel, Maulana Yaqoob, Maulana Muhammad Jamil, Maulana Zuhair Ahmed, Maulana Ahmed and Maulana Muhammad Ibrahim delivered sermons during the congregation.

The second phase of the event will begin on Nov 9 (Friday). For the last few years, the annual event has been divided into two phases due to administrative and security reasons.

In the first phase, people from interior Sindh, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Dir, Peshawar, Swat, Haripur and Gilgit participate while in the second phase those from Karachi, Balochistan, Bahawalpur, Multan, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Mardan, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad attend the event.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2018