Chandrakona: Members of three Christian families were allegedly assaulted inside their homes by people identified by the victims and witnesses as members of the Bajrang Dal. The women were allegedly beaten, their clothes torn and some of them stripped to the point of partial nudity. Minor girls were not spared either, the families alleged.The incident, an attempt at religious persecution, took place in Patlapur village, under Chandrakona police station in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district, amid the Durga Puja festivities. The families said they faced sustained attacks and intimidation over three consecutive days. They were deeply traumatised and have since been fearful for their safety. On October 20, they lodged an FIR at Chandrakona police station naming 13 people associated with the alleged Hindutva group. However, no one has been arrested yet.The incident comes amid allegations by minority communities that attacks and intimidation against them have increased since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in West Bengal in May. Across several localities, people have said, groups who identified as the Bajrang Dal or Hindu Jagran Samiti have targeted minority communities and Christian places of worship.Such incidents have been reported from Jalalkhali in Nadia, Subhashgram in South 24 Parganas, Khejuri in East Midnapore, Mohanpur in North 24 Parganas, Uluberia in Howrah, Raybati in Purba Bardhaman and Navasan in Sonamukhi, Bankura, among other places. The allegations include attacks on churches, vandalism, threats against people praying and the tearing of Bibles. Also read: Hindu Mob Vandalises Under-Construction Church in Bengal’s SonarpurThe affected people told The Wire that despite bringing these incidents to the authorities’ attention, the state government has failed to take effective action.New communal tensionsLocated approximately 15 kilometres from Chandrakona town, Patlapur falls under the Manoharpur-II gram panchayat. Around 150 families live in the village, including residents belonging to Scheduled Caste communities, Christians, Muslims and other social groups.Agriculture is the principal occupation in the area, while some families earn their livelihood by making copper ornaments alongside farming. Families in neighbouring villages, such as Sitarampur, Manoharpur, Gopalpur, Balinagar and Dingal, are also involved in making copper jewellery. Relations between these villages had traditionally been cordial. According to Soumitra Gharui, a local primary school teacher, the village had not witnessed any caste-related disputes or violent incidents of this nature in decades. Residents, however, said attempts to disturb this social harmony began around a year ago.What happened a year agoSeveral years ago, Ashok Mondal, his brother Gopal and another resident embraced Christianity. People from a few neighbouring villages also converted to the religion. “We embraced Christianity of our own free will. We trust Lord Jesus, and it was this faith and love that led us to accept the religion. At the same time, we have immense respect for other religions,” Lakshmi Mondal, Ashok Mondal’s wife, told The Wire.Villagers said that the community had initially accepted the conversions as a normal expression of personal choice. Residents believed that everyone was entitled to practise their own religion.However, according to Lakshmi Mondal and her husband, Tapan Mondal, not everyone accepted the conversion. Lakshmi alleged that first, her cousins-in-law – Asit, Arun, Barun and Tarun Mondal – began harassing the family during the Durga Puja last year.Also read: ‘When a Prayer Becomes a Crime’: Anti-Christian Violence in Madhya Pradesh“They came to our house and questioned why we had converted to Christianity. We told them that it was our personal choice and that the constitution does not prohibit anyone from adopting a religion of their choice. After that, they began humiliating us on various pretexts,” Lakshmi said.The couple mentioned having submitted a written complaint to Chandrakona police station at the time. Police personnel visited the village, they noted, but no effective action was taken against the accused cousins.After a brief lull, they said, the harassment intensified again after the change of government in Bengal.Day 1: Physical and sexual assaultsThe recent series of attacks have left the families shaken. Lakshmi Mondal and her sister-in-law, Banshri Mondal, said the situation escalated sharply from October 16. She noted that her relatives, who threatened them the previous year, were also present when a group of people who identified as Bajrang Dal members allegedly issued initial threats that day.According to them, the group arrived in the village and threatened the families, asking them to abandon Christianity or face consequences. But by October 18, they started physically assaulting them.“At around 3:30 pm on October 18, a group came to our house and launched an attack,” Lakshmi recounted. She also identified the people who allegedly attacked them on October 18. “They included Dilip Mishra, Bappaditya Chatterjee, Pocha Patra, Ranjit Dolui, Bapi Mondal, Tarun Mondal, Madan Manna, Ajit Dolui, Purnima Das, Suchitra Mondal, Manimoyee Mukherjee and Mithu Dolui, along with several others. Some of the women had come from the village, while others had arrived from Gopalpur and Raniganj,” she said.“They shouted that they had been trying for a year to force us to give up Christianity but had failed. Now, they said, a new government had come to power, one that supported Hindutva, and the Bajrang Dal would ensure that we abandoned our religion.” Several witnesses who The Wire spoke to echoed Lakshmi’s statement.‘I could feel someone removing my sari’Lakshmi went on to recount the horrific violence she suffered that day. “That afternoon, Ranjit Dolui struck me below my ear. I lost consciousness. Once I was partly conscious, I could feel someone removing my sari and tearing my blouse,” she said.Lakshmi subsequently learnt that Ranjit Dolui, Pocha Patra and Bapi Mondal had allegedly removed her sari and torn her blouse.“They splashed water on my face and eyes to bring me around. They poured water over my body in front of everyone, chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and declared that I had been purified. I was lying on the floor of my house in that condition,” she claimed.She alleged they also took away the Bible kept in her house.Before leaving, they threatened to attack Lakshmi’s daughter, a Class X student. They allegedly threatened to rape her if the family refused to abandon Christianity. Lakshmi further alleged that the group threatened to burn the family alive if they did not renounce their faith and return to Hinduism.The group also allegedly went to the homes of Banoshri Mondal and their neighbour, Saraswati Mondal, and assaulted them.Banoshri’s 15-year-old daughter was allegedly subjected to an attempted strangling, according to the family’s account.Lakshmi said she was unwell after the assault but she still telephoned Chandrakona police station that day and informed them of the entire incident. Police personnel arrived to take stock of the incident but no effective action followed, she said.Day 2: Coercion to participate in Durga Puja ritualsThe violence and intimidation continued the next day. On October 19, Lakshmi narrated, Madan Manna and Bappaditya Chatterjee – who were part of the group that attacked her the previous day – forcibly took her, along with her husband Tapan, neighbour Saraswati Mondal and husband Gopal Mondal, to a Durga Puja pandal in Dangal.“They took us there against our will and forced us to offer anjali (a religious offering) during the puja,” she alleged. She said it was not merely an assault but an attempt to compel them to participate in rituals against their wishes.Day 3: Violence continuesIt continued for the third day on October 20.Madan Manna and several associates allegedly took Lakshmi’s husband, Tapan Mondal, and Saraswati Mondal’s husband, Ashok Mondal, to an isolated place. Speaking to The Wire, Ashok Mondal said the men threatened to kill them if they did not renounce their faith in Jesus Christ.In her FIR, Lakshmi alleged that Madan Manna and his associates came to her house in the morning, hurled obscene abuses and threatened to kill her and the other members of her family. She also said they confined her inside the house.“Despite everything we had endured, I finally gathered the courage to go to Chandrakona police station on Tuesday and lodge an FIR naming 13 people. Only after that was a police picket deployed outside our homes,” Lakshmi told The Wire.Her elderly father-in-law, Krishnapada Mondal, has reportedly been suffering from paralysis for several years. According to Lakshmi, the alleged persecution continued in front of him for all three days, leaving the family terrified.The group allegedly came back the next day too and announced that all three families would be converted back to Hinduism, creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.Although police personnel have since been deployed near the families’ homes, the three families were traumatised. Their fear has been compounded by the fact that those attacking them were allegedly still roaming freely.‘We pray inside our homes, peacefully’The victims said since there was no church in their village, they ordinarily pray to Jesus inside their homes. They questioned why they were still attacked.“We pray to Jesus in our own homes. We do so peacefully. Why should anyone have a problem with that? Why were we beaten and left bleeding? Why are we being threatened with death unless we abandon Christianity? Are people belonging to other religions no longer allowed to live in Bengal?” they asked.They raised concerns about their freedom to practise their choice of religion, the safety of religious minorities and the responsibility of the police to protect citizens from threats and coercion.What the police saidOn October 21, Wednesday, Paschim Medinipur superintendent of police Papiya Sultana told The Wire that an FIR had been registered in connection with the incident in Patlapur.“The FIR has been registered. The police will provide security to the families, and the incident will be investigated. Appropriate action will be taken,” she said.However, the families’ have alleged they were still awaiting investigation. The victims have demanded protection and action against those named in the FIR.