The biggest annual congregation of Muslims in India began near this Madhya Pradesh capital Saturday.

Around one million devotees, religious leaders and scholars from all over the country and abroad are attending the three-day meet called Ijtima.

This is for the third consecutive year the gathering is being held in Einthedi, a village around 15 km from Bhopal.

Religious scholars will deliver lectures on Islam during the congregation, said Ausaf Shahmiri Khurram, one of the organisers of the congregation.

"The number of devotees will be the highest on the concluding day," he said.

The annual congregation is being held for the last 56 years. Earlier the congregation was held in the heart of this city at Tajul Masajid, said to the one of Asia's biggest mosques.

A sleepy village of around 500 families, Eintkhedi has transformed into a tented township in which the devotees will be living. 

Several shops selling religious books, food and clothes have come up in the village.

"Several government departments are working round the clock to see that the devotees do not face any problem. Electricity is being provided in all the tents. Clean drinking water is being provided to the people, besides temporary bathrooms and toilets," said Bhopal's collector Sanjay Shukla.

Nearly 1,000 police personnel have been deployed at the village, the official added.

"I have been attending the Ijtima for the last five years," said Tausif Alam, 25, a native of Bhopal. "I intend to a religious scholar in the future. Here I get a chance to meet several religious scholars."

--Indo-Asian News Service