Members of the hardline Hindu group Bajrang Dal are accused of harassing and threatening three Christian families in a village in Paschim Medinipur district of India’s West Bengal over three days, and of forcing Hindu rites on them. The Indian news site Scroll reported the account, based on a first information report (FIR) filed with the police.
Members of the families told Scroll that the attackers threatened to rape and abduct the families’ underage daughters, and that one woman was nearly stripped. The mob also threatened to burn them alive and repeatedly pressed them to give up Christianity. No one has been arrested so far.
At about 3:30 pm on 18 October, Lakshmi Mondal, 40, was doing housework when a group of more than 10 people, at least three of them women, from a neighbouring village forced their way into her home. Mondal identified them as residents of the neighbouring village and said they were linked to the Hindu nationalist organisation Bajrang Dal.
“They dragged me outside. I was slapped and hit hard on the head and below the ear, and I lost consciousness,” Mondal told Scroll. When she came to, she found the attackers trying to pull off her clothes. “I realised they were abusing me and shouting that I would be stripped. Three men pulled off my sari and tore my blouse,” she said.
She alleged that she was forcibly bathed as part of a “Hindu purification ceremony”. The group threatened to abduct and rape her 16-year-old daughter. “They said I could not keep my faith in Christianity and that no Christian could live in this Hindu area,” she said.
Two days after the attack, an FIR was registered at Chandrakona police station against 13 people. According to the FIR, they face charges of trespass, attempted murder, assault or criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, theft, criminal intimidation and insulting a woman’s modesty. A senior police officer in Paschim Medinipur told Scroll that police had registered a case and opened an investigation. “The family is in their home, and a police team has been deployed there,” the officer said. Asked whether Bajrang Dal was involved, he said: “We are looking into it.”
Mondal, who converted to Christianity three years ago, said the three families had faced verbal threats for the past year and had been told to give up their faith. “But this is the first time they entered our homes, attacked us, used obscene language and threatened to rape me and my daughter,” she said. She alleged that the police at first gave them “no protection”. “On the third day they started guarding our house. But still no one has been arrested,” she said.
“They threatened to burn us alive”
Right after the attack on Mondal, members of the same group entered the homes of her two sisters-in-law, Banashree and Saraswati Mondal, who live nearby. “They were hit on the back with iron rods and abused in foul language. They broke the lock on Saraswati Mondal’s room and stole 20,000 rupees,” Lakshmi Mondal said. Banashree Mondal’s underage daughter was also attacked. The FIR states: “The 15-year-old girl was strangled with intent to kill. She was threatened with abduction and rape.”
Before leaving, the attackers threatened to kill them. “They threatened that if we went to the police, we would be burned alive,” Mondal said. She was not deterred and called the 100 emergency number. Police arrived at about 6:30 pm. “But the police took no action. They left after a while without giving us any protection,” she said.
After the police left, Mondal said, the attackers grew bolder. They surrounded the houses and let no one leave. “They kept saying the police could do nothing to save us. So that night we moved our daughter to another safe place,” she said.
The next morning, 19 October, the mob came back.
This time, Mondal said, she, Banashree Mondal and their husbands were taken to a Durga Puja pandal in the nearby village of Dingal, where all four were made to offer pushpanjali, a flower offering to the goddess. The following morning the group took Lakshmi Mondal’s husband away again. “They took my husband to an unknown place and threatened to kill him if we did not renounce Jesus Christ,” she said. He returned a few hours later.
Police were posted outside their homes on 20 October. “But we are still terrified. No one has been arrested. What will happen to us if the police are withdrawn?” Mondal said.
Christian organisations say they are documenting violence against the community across the state. “There have been at least 13 FIRs and more than 60 attacks, but in most cases no legal action has been taken against the perpetrators,” a Christian leader in Kolkata said. According to the 2011 census, West Bengal has about 6.5 lakh Christians, 0.72 percent of the state’s population.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report