Kolkata: An increasingly confrontational campaign has gathered momentum around the 14th-century Adina Mosque in West Bengal’s Malda district, as Hindutva activists intensify efforts to claim the Archaeological Survey of India-protected monument is the site of an ancient Hindu shrine.The dispute over Bengal’s largest medieval mosque has intensified following a series of physical drives, public legal filings, and inflammatory rhetoric from local organisers who are eager conduct Hindu rituals inside the protected complex. The developments have prompted heightened police vigilance in Malda, a border district where Muslims constitute approximately 52% of the population.The latest tensions followed an event organised by the Hindu Suraksha Samiti, whose members transported a 3.5-foot-high stone Shivling weighing about 1.5 tonnes from Tarakeswar in Hooghly to a shrine barely 50 yards from the boundary of the Adina Mosque complex. On July 27, the rituals were held outside the ASI-protected area, but the organisation’s leaders told this contributor and on Facebook as well, that they intended to eventually enter the monument and perform a puja there.An image showing the Shivling on the Hindutva group’s page.‘Even if we don’t get a court order by then, we will conduct the puja’Not much is known about the Hindu Suraksha Samiti or how large it is. It is also unclear where it originates from or is headquartered.The state secretary of the Hindu Suraksha Samiti, one Avijit Das, told The Wire, “We announced before the election that we would conduct puja of Adinath [the Hindu deity Shiv] on the first Monday of Shravan [July 27] in Adina masjid. This year, we conducted puja just outside the premises. We have filed a PIL [public interest litigation] to do it inside the compound next year.”He added, “Even if we don’t get a court order by then, we will conduct the puja within the Masjid compound.”Das also claimed that the organisation had “received cooperation from the local administration and the police, despite a prohibitory order issued by a magistrate.” The Wire has reached out to the Malda superintendent of police over this claim but is yet to hear back. His statement that the group could enter the protected compound even without judicial permission has added to concerns about a possible confrontation at the site. Although Avijit Das denied any formal association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), another senior functionary acknowledged the organisation’s ideological links with the outfit.“I am an RSS pracharak myself. The Sangh is our mother organisation. We have strictly followed the administration’s order and conducted puja outside the Masjid premises,” said Subhankar Das, the Nadia district secretary of the Hindu Suraksha Samiti.Officially, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not maintained distance, state secretary Samik Bhattacharya reiterated Hindu Surakhsha Samiti’s claim that the mosque was originally the site of an ancient Adinath Temple dedicated to Shiv.“I don’t know which Hindu organisation has installed a Shivlinga at which place. I know it is a temple of Adinath, a temple of Shiva, which Muslim rulers named as Adina Masjid to enforce their dominance,” said Bhattacharya while speaking to the media.Bhattacharya made a similar controversial statement in December 2025, in the parliament, drawing uproar. Historians, architectural scholars, and official records sharply refute the claim that the mosque was constructed over a demolished temple. Bengal history chronicler Deepanjan Ghosh explained that there is no historical or linguistic foundation for the temple theory.“There is no evidence to show that there was ever any temple called Adinath in the area. No historic documents that I have found show this. The word Adina means Friday in Persian. Adina Masjid means Friday Mosque, or Jama Masjid,” Ghosh told The Wire.Official West Bengal government documentation confirms that the Adina Masjid was built in 1369 CE by Sultan Sikandar Shah as an imperial congregational mosque. Measuring approximately 500 metres by 300 meters and with 260 pillars supporting 387 domed bays, the vast structure was abandoned in the 19th century after devastating earthquakes damaged portions of its brick arches and vaults before being listed as a monument of national importance under the ASI.The mosque was abandoned during the 19th century after a series of devastating earthquakes damaged several of its brick arches, vaults and domes. It was subsequently placed under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India and listed as a monument of national importance.The Adina and its buildingAdina is an important example of the cultural and artistic synthesis that has characterised medieval Bengal. Its 39 mihrabs – semicircular niches in a mosque wall – and minbars – pulpits – are Islamic in conception, but their ornamentation incorporates regional motifs, including scalloped columns, lotus-shaped plinths and trilobate arches. These appear alongside Islamic imagery, such as hanging-lamp motifs associated with Surah Al-Nur.The monument also contains basalt blocks, doorjambs and other pieces of repurposed pre-Islamic masonry, or spolia, bearing carvings of lotus petals, leaves and figures identified by some scholars as Ganesha and Shiva. Right-wing groups have cited these elements as evidence that a temple was demolished at the site.Historians including Syed Mahmodul Hasan who wrote a book called Mosque Architecture of Pre-Mughal Bengal, caution, however, that the reuse of older architectural material was widespread in medieval construction and cannot, by itself, establish that a functioning temple was destroyed to build the mosque. They argue that Bengal’s regional artistic vocabulary continued to influence structures commissioned under Muslim rulers, particularly in a period when artisans, patrons and communities operated within a deeply syncretic cultural environment.The Adina Mosque’s ground plan, as on Syed Mahmodul Hasan’s book.The presence of motifs associated with different religious traditions may therefore reflect the coexistence and adaptation of local architectural practices rather than the violent replacement of one place of worship by another. No known historical account records the existence of a temple at the Pandua site before the construction of the Adina Mosque.Existing temples ignored as Hindutva groups focus on mosquesMeanwhile, the Hindu Suraksha Samiti has also outlined a far-reaching statewide agenda that extends well beyond Malda. Avijit Das spoke to The Wire of the group’s plans to reclaim the 1298 AD Zafar Khan Ghazi Mosque and Dargah in Tribeni, Hooghly – the oldest surviving Islamic monument in Bengal – and convert it into a Hindu shrine. “There are thousands of beautiful terracotta temples across Bengal that are crumbling away due to paucity of funds and lack of maintenance. Not one Hindutva group has come forward to take up their cause. Their only interest is in sites such as Adina or Zafar Khan Ghazi. From this, it should be clear that their primary interest is not in Hindu religion, or even devotion to a particular Hindu deity. It is simply to provoke riots,” said Ghosh.Das also announced campaigns pushing for a statewide ban on inter-religion marriages, 100% reservation for Bengali Hindus in government jobs, and a total prohibition on selling land to Muslims.Since the initial call with Das, The Wire received at least four unsolicited calls from individuals claiming affiliation with the Hindu Suraksha Samiti to repeat the same claims.The ongoing ground mobilisation has moved in tandem with structured legal action. On January 19, 2026, the Calcutta high court admitted a PIL iled by activist Debadatta Maji, who retained senior advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Shankar Jain, lawyers leading high-profile sacred-site litigations in Gyanvapi and Mathura. The petition challenges the ASI’s administrative classification of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act of 1958, alleging that the agency overlooked embedded Hindu iconography and requested a scientific survey along with worship rights inside the structure. The ASI and state administrative authorities have maintained that protected monuments must be preserved according to the religious and administrative status that existed when they were brought under statutory protection. Under that position, no new form of religious worship can be introduced inside the Adina Mosque complex.As rumours circulated on social media suggesting that a puja had already been held inside the monument, the Malda District Police issued a public advisory denying the claim. The police clarified that no religious ceremony had taken place within the protected Adina monument and reiterated that religious activities were prohibited inside the ASI-designated perimeter.The Malda superintendent of police also issued a separate clarification withdrawing an earlier statement to the media. The revised statement said that the programme had been independently organised by the Hindu Suraksha Samiti and had neither the support nor the association of the Bharatiya Janata Party.The Wire has sent queries to the Malda Superintendent of Police asking why the procession was permitted near the ASI-protected site despite prohibitory orders, whether cases have been registered against those who defied administrative directives, and what specific steps are planned to safeguard the historical monument. This report will be updated as soon as a response is received.