The government will decide whether Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, a top scholar of Indian Tabligh-Jamaat, will attend the first phase of the 53rd Biswa Ijtema to be held from January 12 to 14, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said today.

It is the duty of the country to provide him security and the law enforcers are doing so, Asaduzzaman told The Daily Star.

A huge number of law enforcers have been deployed near the Kakrail mosque where Maulana Saad Kandhalvi is staying.

A faction of the Tabligh Jamaat yesterday blocked the busy Airport Road protesting the arrival of the religious group's top scholar Maulana Saad Kandhalvi from India to attend Biswa Ijtema.

Followers of the faction, mostly belonging to radical Islamist group Hefajat-e Islam, sat on the road and chanted slogans against Maulana Saad Kandhalvi for what they claimed were his "controversial comments about the Koran and Sunnah."