Another centuries-old mosque is on the verge of being drawn into controversy as a right-wing Hindutva group in West Bengal has reportedly vowed to hold a puja and install a Shiva Lingam outside the historic Adina Masjid in Pandua, Malda.
The mosque, said to have been built by Sultan Sikandar Shah of the Bengal Sultanate in 1373 AD, was considered the biggest mosque in medieval times in the entire Indian subcontinent. The group claims that it was originally a Shiva temple.
The controversy erupted after the organisation Adinath Puratan Shiv Mandir proposed the installation of a 3.6-foot-high Shiva Lingam, weighing around 1.5 tonnes, outside the protected monument on Monday, claiming that the Adina Masjid was constructed after the destruction of an Adinath Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, according to The Indian Express.
BJP functionary Kajal claimed that the mosque features Hindu and Buddhist sculptures, motifs and even a Shiva Lingam, which, according to the organisation, show that the mosque was built using the remains of an earlier temple. He added that the organisation would move the Calcutta High Court seeking an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey of the site, with the aim of restoring the alleged temple and installing the Shiva Lingam inside it.
Goswami was also quoted by TIE as saying that the organisation would perform a puja and install the Shiva Lingam with the permission of the ASI and the district police, who had permitted it to hold religious observances only outside the protected monument.
The ASI has made it clear that the Adina Masjid is a centrally protected monument of national importance and that no religious activity will be permitted within its premises, while reports suggest that security has been beefed up around the monument ahead of the group's proposed religious functions, with additional police deployment and increased ASI personnel to ensure law and order. No regular prayers are presently conducted inside the mosque.
The Malda district police have also issued a public advisory warning against any unauthorised religious ceremonies within the monument, citing provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. Authorities cautioned that strict legal action would follow any violation.
The mosque became a controversial site after BJP Rajya Sabha MP and West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya raised the issue in Parliament in December 2025, arguing that historical accounts and architectural features suggested the mosque had been constructed using materials from pre-existing Hindu and Buddhist structures, and calling upon the Union Government and the ASI to investigate the site's origins.
Likening the Adinath dispute to the Ayodhya dispute, former West Bengal BJP president Rahul Sinha asserted that public sentiment surrounding the alleged Adinath Temple could not be ignored and alleged that remnants of Hindu iconography remained visible within the mosque.
Responding to the BJP's claim, CPI(M) State Secretary Md Salim accused the BJP of attempting to replicate the strategy it had employed in other temple-mosque disputes, alleging that such campaigns were intended to foster communal polarisation rather than preserve heritage.
According to the ASI, the Adina Masjid remains one of the most remarkable architectural monuments of the Bengal Sultanate. An inscription records that it was commissioned by Sultan Sikandar Shah, son of Ilyas Shah, in 1373 CE.