Christians marched to the Esplanade in Kolkata on Thursday 5 November to protest what they describe as a wave of mob attacks on churches across West Bengal, according to SabrangIndia, which drew on reporting by The Hindu. It followed a prayer rally in the same area on 1 November organised by the Bangiya Christiya Parishad (BCP).
The article, citing media reports, counts at least 48 incidents since May 2026, of which seven involved mainline churches (six Catholic, one Church of North India). It describes a newly built Protestant church in Basanti, South 24 Parganas, being vandalised by a mob it attributes to “some Hindu outfits”, with several priests and the bishop reportedly injured, and a similar attack on a prayer meeting in Harishchandrapur, Malda, in which nobody was hurt. Police are said to have registered formal complaints in only 15 of the 48 cases.
Herod Mullick of the BCP called the attacks coordinated and rejected the “forced conversion” allegation as a false narrative. Archbishop Joseph D’Souza of the All India Christian Council said the fight would continue. The article says Dr Jishnu Basu, the RSS state head, told a BCP delegation that attacks on places of worship are unacceptable and that he would raise the matter with the Chief Minister.
Reporting note: This relies on one outlet’s account of other media reports. The incident count is not independently verified, the article gives inconsistent dates for some events, and it carries no statement from police or the state government. The attackers are identified only as “some Hindu outfits”. The photograph shows a Kolkata cathedral for illustration only and is not one of the churches attacked.
Photo: Subhrajyoti07 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
