Thousands upon thousands gathered at Kozhikode Beach in Kerala to protest the Union government’s new Waqf law, the Waqf Amendment Act 2025. The Indian Union Muslim League, the organiser, claimed that over two lakh people joined the protest, calling it the largest gathering against the new Waqf law in India.
People from all corners of the state took part in the protest, many carrying placards and banners against the new act.
IUML state president Panakkad Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal inaugurated the demonstration. In his speech, he expressed hope that the Supreme Court would revoke the “anti-constitutional” Act. The Indian Union Muslim League has also filed a petition against the Act in the Supreme Court.
Thangal said that through the new waqf law, the Union government wanted to send out a message that nobody should come forward to grant their properties or lands as ‘waqf’ anymore.
He alleged that the Modi government, instead of protecting the rights of minorities in their properties, was working against them. “It is like people who are supposed to guard a property themselves trying to steal it. We will fight politically and legally against such attempts,” he added.
Congress leaders, Karnataka minister Krishna Byre Gowda and Telangana minister Dansari Anasuya alias Seethakka, were the chief guests at the event.
Gowda alleged that the BJP was spreading a bunch of lies in the name of Waqf properties while Anasuya said that the new waqf law was a direct insult to the nation.
Muslim League national president and former MP K. M. Kader Mohideen, former MP and party general secretary P. K. Kunhalikutty, IUML parliamentarians E. T. Muhammed Basheer, P. V. Abdul Wahab, and M. P. Abdussamad Samadani were among the speakers.
