RAJBIRAJ: The Ministry of Home Affairs has granted permission to convene Islamic congregation in Bode Barsain Municipality-5, Jajar of Saptari district under the condition that the hosts shall confine the conference to the participants from Nepal and India alone.
Earlier, the Ministry had banned the conference citing there were many participants from other countries besides Nepal and India.
“The conditional permission granted to host the Ijtema included that the hosts would ensure no involvement of the Muslims from outside,” Kedar Nath Sharma, the spokesperson at the Ministry said, “the Muslim Commission has ensured that they would keep their words; hence, provided only the participants are confined to be the Nepali and Indian nationals there is no objection against the program.”
Spokesperson Sharma reiterated that while granting the permission on Jan. 20, the government had asked not to include the outsiders in the conference.
“When we found that nationals from other countries also started assembling at the conference site, we wrote a letter to Muslim Commission and directed them not to conduct the program,” Sharma said, “ however, lately, we have got the assurance that they would send the others back prior to holding conference.”
Mohammad Gaffur, the coordinator of the Ijtema Organizing Committee confirmed that they have agreed to send the participants including the imams from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“The district administration has asked to provide the total number of such participants and we are collecting details,” Coordinator Gaffur said.
According to the security officials of Sapatari, there are more than 100 participants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Qatar, Dubai and Malaysia whom the administration has asked the host to send back instantly.