Suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir lays 'Babri-style' mosque foundation in Bengal amid tight security

Baharampur: Suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir on Saturday laid the foundation stone for a mosque – modelled on Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid – at Rejinagar in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, escalating political temperatures in the state where the assembly elections are due next year.

Amid a heavy deployment of state police, RAF and central forces, Kabir, alongside visiting Islamic clerics, cut a ceremonial ribbon on a sprawling stage at Rejinagar, even as the actual mosque construction site was nearly a kilometre away from the venue.

Slogans of “Nara-e-Takbeer, Allahu Akbar” rent the air as thousands, many of them carrying bricks on their heads as symbolic offerings, surged into the venue from the early morning.

The event was scheduled on December 6, the anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992, a choice that has lent the ceremony both emotive charge and sharp political edge.

Security was tightened not only in Rejinagar but also across the adjoining Beldanga belt, which the administration effectively turned into a high-security zone in anticipation of crowd spillovers and possible flare-ups.

Kabir, who was suspended by the Trinamool Congress earlier this week on charges of indulging in “communal politics”, struck a defiant tone from the stage, repeatedly asserting that the proposed structure would come up “at any cost”.

“I am doing nothing unconstitutional. Building a place of worship is a constitutional right. Babri Masjid will be built,” he told the gathering.

He claimed that the project would not face any financial hurdles.

“An industrialist, who does not want to be named, has promised Rs 80 crore. There will be no shortage of funds,” Kabir said, adding that the main mosque would be constructed on three 'kathas' of land, while the total complex would spread across nearly 25 bighas.

Unveiling an expansive vision for the site, Kabir announced that the complex would also house a hospital, a medical college, a university, a hotel and a helipad, with the total projected investment pegged at around Rs 300 crore.

A local doctor, he said, had already donated Rs 1 crore for the project.

Religious leaders from Saudi Arabia were present on the dais, lending a transnational religious presence.

As Quranic recitations echoed from loudspeakers, supporters raised bricks aloft as "imaarati khairat", symbolic construction donations, before handing them over to volunteers near the stage.

Kabir repeatedly framed the project as both a religious and emotional redress.

“Thirty-three years ago, a deep wound was inflicted on the hearts of Muslims. Today, we are applying a small balm to that wound,” he said, while alleging that threats had been issued against him over the announcement of the mosque.

The suspended MLA also invoked demography to buttress his argument.

“There are 40 crore Muslims in this country, four crore in this state. Can we not build one mosque here?” he asked, drawing loud applause from the packed crowd.

The spectacle, however, has triggered sharp political reactions across party lines.

The BJP accused the TMC of covertly encouraging polarisation ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, even as the ruling party distanced itself from Kabir’s actions, citing his suspension as proof that it does not endorse his politics.

Senior TMC leaders described Kabir as a “free agent” whose defiance had become “politically untenable”.