KOLKATA, Aug. 5 -- Several mosques across West Bengal on Wednesday removed loudspeakers used for azan (call for prayers) following verbal instructions from local police stations, prominent Muslim clerics in the state said.

Maulana Muhammad Shafique Qasmi, the Imam of Kolkata's Nakhoda Mosque, Bengal's biggest, said, "There is no court order or government notification that says loudspeakers must be summarily removed from all mosques. If there were such orders, the Imams and masjid committees should have been informed by the government. Instead, masjid officials were threatened and asked to remove the loudspeakers. Isn't this a violation of law?"

Maulana Qasmi said there were 62,000 mosques in the state according to Waqf board records, bu...