In early February, I joined up with some friends and went to the Biswa Ijtema, a large-scale Muslim gathering at Tongi, about 10 miles north of Dhaka, Bangladesh. With an estimated three million worshippers, it is the largest Muslim pilgrimage after the Hajj in Mecca. Roads leading to the gathering are blocked for vehicles and people either walk the 10-odd miles on foot (as we did), or they hitch a ride anywhere they can aboard one of the many trains running to Tongi Junction, the nearest rail station from where pilgrims proceed to the Ijtema.
On the last day of the Ijtema, the trains were by far the most spectacular sight I've come across in a long time - every square inch of space was utilised by the passengers, crowding the roof, hanging out of doors and windows, even sitting on the buffers and clinging onto the crannies of the locomotives as they slowly struggle on their way to and from Tongi. I thought I knew what overcrowding was until I saw these trains filled with keen worshippers eager to attend the last day of prayers. Now no more words, instead I let the pictures speak for themselves:
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