Now Bengal: Prayers outside ancient mosque, BJP leader plans Shiva Lingam to strengthen ‘temple’ claim

The organisation claims many Hindu and Buddhist motifs are present in the mosque, apart from a Shiva Lingam, and says it will approach the Calcutta High Court soon seeking an ASI report on the issue. (www.asiraiganj.in) A mandir-masjid row is brewing now in West Bengal as a Hindu right-wing group, led by a BJP leader, conducts prayers near a 650-year-old mosque which it claims was once a temple, in Malda district. On the coming Monday, the ‘Adinath Puratan Shiv Mandir’ organisation plans to install a big Shiva Lingam outside the mosque. Built in 1373 AD by Sikandar Shah, the Adina Masjid in Pandua, Malda, is considered by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to have been the biggest mosque in medieval times in the entire subcontinent. However, Hindu groups and the BJP have been claimin