Noted Islamic scholar and the top leader of Tabligh Jamaat Moulana Saad Kandhalvi returned to New Delhi yesterday without joining this years' Biswa Ijtema, the second largest religious congregation of Muslims after Hajj.

Saad, who had been conducting the Akheri Munajat (concluding prayers) for the last three years, remained inside the Kakrail Mosque for two days before leaving on the Jet Airlines flight.

The radical Islamic organisation Hefajat-e Islam first tried to prevent Saad's arrival because they were strongly opposed to his participation in the Ijtema.  Their opposition stemmed from allegations of what Hefajat leaders claimed to be “controversial statements about the Quran and Sunnah” that Saad had made.

They demanded an apology from Moulana Saad for the "statements" if he wished to attend the Ijtema.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, two senior scholars of the Bangladesh chapter of Tabligh Jamaat, termed Hefajat's claims baseless and motivated.

"When an Islamic scholar of this standard talks for hours a day, he may say something not acceptable to others. But that does not make him controversial," one of the 11 Shura members of Tabligh said, asking not be named.

Even if he had said something controversial, Moulana Saad, on several occasions, apologised both verbally and in writing for them, he said. "But some people are not accepting that and trying to cash in on it for their own interests," he alleged.

He said a section has been hatching a conspiracy against Tabligh Jamaat since 2015.

The Shura member said Moulana Saad has been coming to Bangladesh for the last 20 years and no controversy ever arose regarding his comments.

"He came this year too but we did not treat him properly. He went back with a heavy heart," regretted a senior Tabligh man who was with Saad during his stay at Kakrail Mosque.

According to sources inside Kakrail Mosque, considered as the headquarters of Tabligh Jamaat in Bangladesh, all the decisions regarding Ijtema and selection of Shura members are made after consultation with the oraganisation's headquarters in Nizamuddin Market in New Delhi, India.

Moulana Saad played a key role in those consultations. But it didn't happen this year as the Shura members in India and Bangladesh have become sharply divided over Saad's alleged controversial statements.

A rift in Tabligh's leadership has been going on in India for the last two years but there had been no problems in Bangladesh until this year's protest by Hefajat-e Islam.

Every year, Saad held a meeting with the Shura body for various decisions but this year members aligned with Hefajat did not meet him, said the sources.

Many in Kakrail Mosque fear that the rivalry may hamper organising Ijtema in the future. Bangladesh has been successfully and peacefully holding it since 1998.

Tabligh Jamaat, known as a non-political global religious movement, came into being in 1927 in India. Moulana Ilyas Kandhalvi founded the religious movement, which has an estimated 70 to 80 million followers in more than 150 countries, majority of whom are based in South Asia.

Its largest chapter is in Bangladesh with an estimated 15 million members. They travel in small groups from one place to another, stay in mosques and invite people to perform daily religious duties.