Imam guessed something wrong just before Naamaz

"I was supposed to give my sermon between 9:00 and 9:40 in the morning. But it had passed 9:45am and I was getting tired of speaking,” said Shoaib Abdur Rouf. Because, he recalled, “Huzur Maulana Farid Uddin still hadn't arrived. So I was given a directive to carry on. At this moment, I can guess something was wrong."

Imam Hafez Maulana Shoaib Abdur Rouf, who was kept stand-by to conduct this year’s prayers in the country’s largest Eid congregation, had to continue to speak until 10:00am.

"I saw people standing, apparently ready for the prayers. I finished my sermon and went to the back end. I talked to the DC for a while and learned that something was awry. But it was decided that the Naamaz would go on as scheduled," he said narrating his experience at Sholakia Eidgah on Thursday talking to ProthomAlo on Friday.

In the absence of the main Imam, Maulana Farid Uddin, the 189th Eid congregation at Sholakia was overseen by Shoaib Abdur Rouf, who is the Imam of Sahabuddin mosque in Kishoreganj.

The moment Shoaib Abdur Rouf was giving his speech, a gunfight was taking place between the police and militants near Azimuddin High School, around half a kilometre away from the Eidgah. Only a few people at the Eidgah realised this, some got information over phone. But Shoaib Abdur Rouf was entirely in the dark. He realised that something wrong might have happened only around 15 minutes before the Naamaz.

In the attack on Eid day, two police officers were killed. The police shot dead a militant named Abir Rahman and a woman named Jhorna Rani Bhoumik was killed in the crossfire in her home.

The main Imam, Maulana Farid Uddin could not attend the prayers due to the explosion at Sholakia.

He came to the district town’s old stadium by a helicopter, but instead of going to the Eidgah, he was taken to the circuit house considering his security.

Shoaib Abdur Rouf told ProthomAlo that the prayers were conducted on the scheduled time but hurriedly.

He quoted from the holy Quran, “Whoever kills a person [unjustly]…it is as though he killed all mankind.” These atrocities, he said, committed in the name of religion are not condoned by Islam at all. “This is a sad display of some people's ignorance of the teachings of Islam.”