Hindu religious site desecrated: Azaan timings board placed in Durga Puja pandal of Muslim-dominated district in West Bengal
Murshidabad, West Bengal, India 
29 September, 2025
Case Summary
In Murshidabad, West Bengal, a Durga Puja pandal was desecrated after an Azaan timings board was hung inside the pandal. A video of the incident surfaced on social media and sparked outrage. Media outlets stated that on 30th September 2025, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari shared videos and photographs showing the scheduled ‘Azaan Timings’ displayed on the wall of a community Durga Puja pandal in the Muslim-dominated Murshidabad district. He strongly criticised the Mamata Banerjee government for its appeasement politics. In the visuals circulated from his official social media handle, Adhikari identified the pandal as the Purba Shibtala Durga Puja Pandal in the Maheshpur Panchayat area of Farakka town, Murshidabad. Adhikari on X wrote, “Mamata Banerjee’s appeasement politics have forced Hindus to compromise in Farakka. West Bengal has been witnessing an unprecedented assault on the Hindu faith and culture under Mamata Banerjee’s misrule. In Farakka, Murshidabad district, at the Purba Shibtala Durga Puja Pandal in the Maheshpur Panchayat area, a shocking sight has emerged: a schedule for Azaan timings has been displayed inside the pandal!” He further stated that Hindus, who were already a minority in the area, were being compelled to bow to oppressive rules reminiscent of the notorious “Muhammad Yunus model” that has plagued neighbouring Bangladesh. Adhikari added, “Such a disgraceful scene was unimaginable even during British rule, but under Mamata Banerjee’s regime, we are being humiliated in our own land.” He emphasised that the West Bengal government’s appeasement of Muslim fundamentalists had emboldened them to impose restrictions on Hindu festivals. Adhikari further remarked, “One has to follow unreasonable diktats, or there have been repeated incidents of attacks on puja pandals and idol vandalism; events that have now become all too common in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal. Year after year, this government shields those who threaten our traditions while forcing Sanatanis (Hindus) to compromise their faith. If this anti-Hindu TMC government is not defeated in 2026, today’s shameful scene in Farakka will spread like a cancer across West Bengal. Tomorrow, they may object to idol worship itself! Let us not forget, once upon a time, Hindus were forced to pay the Jizya tax in our own land. History must not repeat itself.”
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Attack on Hindu religious representations. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Defiling religious customs. Sanatan Dharma is not a religion of one book, which is to say that while it has religious scriptures that form the central tenets of the faith, there are several traditions followed through thousands of years, mostly passed from generation to generation orally. There are several such customs and traditions that are followed by various Hindus and Hindu sects. Defiling of these traditions and customs is a breach of an individual or group’s religious practices. Such practices can range from dietary restrictions like not eating non-vegetarian food for a certain period of the year, not eating non-vegetarian food at all, not eating beef since the cow is considered holy in Hinduism, the sanctity of religious customs followed in the house (like many ISCKON devotees), etc. Any malicious action leading to the breach of such traditions or defilement of these traditions owing to animosity towards the faith or for the sake of activism stems not only from the lack of faith in the religion itself but also from disregard for the faith of the devotees who follow the customs/traditions and implicit bias against the faith, the tradition itself. Since these specific traditions are central to the faith of the devotees of that specific sect of Hindus, any non-compliance with these traditional rules would be considered a religiously motivated hate crime. This incident represented a clear case of defilement of Hindu religious customs. Durga Puja is one of Bengal’s most sacred and celebrated Hindu festivals, symbolising the victory of good over evil and the worship of the divine feminine. The act of hanging an Azaan timings board inside a Durga Puja pandal was not an accident or coincidence. It reflected a deliberate intention to impose alien religious symbolism inside a sacred Hindu space. By placing an Islamic marker within a Hindu pandal, the perpetrators attempted to convey that Hindus must restrain their celebrations and modify their religious expression in deference to the timings of the Islamic faith. This was not only provocative but a symbolic act of religious dominance, amounting to the subjugation of the Hindu faith and open sacrilege of Hindu sentiments. The placement of an Azaan board in a Durga Puja pandal was in itself an act of desecration because such symbols do not belong inside Hindu religious spaces. It amounted to an imposition of Islamic practices on Hindu worship. By intruding into one of the most sacred Hindu festivities, this act directly attacked the religious freedom of Hindus and desecrated their core customs. It showcased the deep-rooted anti-Hindu animosity in the region where Hindus were denied the right to perform their rituals with full glory and dignity. As Suvendu Adhikari pointed out, this incident also needs to be seen in the wider context of Murshidabad being a Muslim-dominated area, where Hindus have repeatedly faced communal violence. Murshidabad has witnessed multiple instances of targeted attacks on Hindus, including assaults on their homes, desecration of temples, and even cases of violence against Hindu women. This long record of hostility against Hindus shows that the Azaan board episode was not isolated but part of an ongoing pattern of intimidation and anti-Hindu aggression in the district. Given the circumstances, this case meets multiple parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime: the deliberate intrusion into a Hindu religious space, the symbolic defilement of sacred custom during Durga Puja, the historical context of communal violence against Hindus in Murshidabad, and the explicit attempt to enforce religious dominance. For these reasons, this incident is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: It must be placed on record that while the symbolism of the Azaan board strongly points towards Muslim involvement, the identity of the actual perpetrators has not yet been confirmed by the media reports available in the public domain. Hence, for documentation purposes, the perpetrators are at present being recorded as “unknown”. Should authenticated evidence emerge regarding the identity of those responsible, the records will be updated accordingly. Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of incidents based on when the crime occurred. However, in this case, media reports did not specify the exact date when the Azaan timings board was hung inside the Durga Puja pandal. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we are considering 30th September 2025—the date when BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari first posted the visuals on social media—as the indicative date of the incident.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
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Perpetrators Range
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Perpetrators Gender
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