KASARAGOD: An eighth century mosque, believed to be the second oldest in India, will suffer damage if K-Rail decides not to change the alignment of SilverLine, the proposed semi high-speed rail line connecting Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod. As per the project’s provisional alignment, the 529.45-km rail line will cut through the courtyard and graveyard of Malik Deenar Juma Masjid at Thalangara.
The mosque comes 1.5km after the proposed SilverLine station in Kasaragod. It is believed to have been built around AD 720-740 by Malik Dinar of Basra, one of the first Muslim scholars who came to India to propagate Islam.
His grave (mazar) at the Thalangara mosque will not be affected. But a revered mazar of an unknown commander of the Marakkars will have to be razed if the alignment is not revised, said Malik Deenar Masjid Committee secretary A Abdul Rahman, who is also the district general secretary of Indian Union Muslim League.
In the 16th century, when the Portuguese were running over the coastal belt from Kozhikode to Ullal in Dakshina Kannada, the soldiers of Kunjali Marakkar, the naval chieftain of Samoothiri (Zamorin), had pitched their tent at the mosque, said Islamic scholar and qazi of Mangaluru and Keezhur Twaqa Ahmed Azhari Kasiyarakam.
In a battle in Kasaragod, many guerillas of the Marakkars died. “This mazar on the southeast corner of the mosque belongs to one of their commanders. We don’t know his name but for centuries, seafarers and fishermen have offered dua here before hitting the sea,” said Twaqa Ahmed, who has authored several books on the mosque’s history.
Councillor of Thalangara, Deenar Nagar Zakariya M said around 70 houses in his ward (No 30) alone would have to be razed for the project. “But instead of sharing the details of the proposal with the people, they send police to thrust the project on us. The government will have to change its tact,” he said.
Many houses will be razed in Nellikkunnu, where the service area for SilverLine is proposed. “But if the SilverLine goes through the coastal area, 50m from the grand mosque, many houses and the mosque can be saved,” said Kasaragod municipal chairman V M Muneer. The mosque committee has written a letter to the chief minister asking him to save the grand mosque.
4,000 graves, including the mazar of a Marakkar commander, an orphanage, a smaller masjid and a school of the mosque may have to be razed if alignment is not changed
Work put on hold
Revenue officials working with K-Rail said 1,651 boundary marker stones were erected on a 42.6km stretch in Kasaragod. “The stones were laid from Trikaripur in the south till Kalnad village near the Chandragiri river. We have stopped the work now,” said an official. Now they have four more villages to cover: Thalangara, Kasaragod, Kudlu and Adukathbayal. Kasaragod has seen the least resistance to the project than the other 10 districts through which it is passing, he said. “We need more meetings with the public before going ahead with the work in these four villages,” he said.