Church Vandalized and Priests Assaulted During Inauguration Ceremony in West Bengal

A church inauguration in Narayantala, located within West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, was derailed by an alleged violent attack and vandalism by a group of radical Hindutva miscreants. According to police sources, the incident occurred under the jurisdiction of the Basanti police station during a ceremony attended by Bishop Subrata Chakraborty alongside several priests and devotees. The perpetrators physically assaulted attendees, targeted religious symbols, and vandalized church property, leaving multiple priests and worshippers injured during the sacred gathering.

A written police complaint detailed that an estimated 30 to 35 individuals unlawfully entered the premises to target the gathering. ‘The complaint states that women were also assaulted and ordered to remove their traditional ‘shakha’ (white conch shell bangles) before being driven out of the premises,’ stated a police official to PTI on Sunday. Attackers also destroyed a cross, smashed mobile phones of witnesses recording the violence, and explicitly threatened to permanently halt all future Christian religious activities at the location.

The Bangio Christiyo Poriseba (BCP) strongly condemned the violence as a targeted effort to intimidate religious minorities. Herod Mullick, the organization’s founding state secretary and working president, expressed outrage over the lack of government intervention, stating, ‘This is an unprecedented incident, where miscreants beat and injured multiple priests at such an inaugural ceremony in the very presence of the bishop.’ He further added, ‘With no effective preventive measures from the administration or the government, these attackers have grown so emboldened that they do not hesitate to torture the priests of an established church.’

This attack follows another recent incident in Paschim Medinipur district, where three Christian families filed complaints regarding physical assault and forced religious conversion attempts. Law enforcement authorities confirmed that an active investigation into the Basanti church vandalism is underway, though no arrests have been made so far. Religious rights organizations continue to demand swift legal action and stronger administrative protections for minority communities across the state.