In a press statement shared with Christian Today India, the All India Catholic Union (AICU) has condemned a mob attack on a Bible convention of Santali Christians in West Bengal and asked the state government to account for its handling of attacks on Christians.
The statement, dated 14 October, said the AICU “expresses its shock and anguish at the mob attack on St Louis Parish Church in Jalalkhali, on the outskirts of Krishnanagar in West Bengal’s Nadia district, on the evening of 9 October 2026.” The Santals are an Adivasi, or Indigenous, community concentrated in eastern India. The attack, the union said, “disrupted a four-day Mega Santali Bible Conference organised by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Krishnanagar”, which had drawn more than 1,900 registered participants.
Citing “eyewitness accounts and press reports”, the AICU said “a group of about 200 people, allegedly associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, gathered near the church chanting provocative slogans.” The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is a Hindu nationalist organisation. The Bajrang Dal is its youth wing.
“Some then entered the premises carrying bamboo poles and bricks, vandalised decorations and banners, pelted the prayer hall with stones and assaulted worshippers,” the statement said. “The glass protecting a statue of Jesus Christ was broken and at least six people were injured. Local Catholics who came out to protest were themselves attacked.”
The Telegraph newspaper reported the same figure of at least six injured. Father Vincent George of St Louis Church told the Express that people used loudspeakers to claim conversions were under way, and that stones were thrown around 6 pm.
The AICU said Bishop Nirmol Vincent Gomes of Krishnanagar “has described the assault as premeditated and the worst violence his diocese has known.” Christian Today India reported the attack on 12 October.
The diocese has lodged a complaint with Krishnanagar police. It invokes Article 25(1) of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practise and propagate religion.
“Church representatives deny any unlawful conversion and point out that the gathering was a regular programme for baptised Christians,” the AICU said. Several Indian states have laws against religious conversion by force, fraud or inducement. Christian leaders say religious events are increasingly targeted on “unsubstantiated conversion claims”, The Telegraph reported.
Sujit Mitra, a regional VHP secretary, told the paper that “conversion of tribals was going on inside the church.” He said Bajrang Dal members were outside reading the Hanuman Chalisa, a 40-verse Hindu devotional hymn to the deity Hanuman, when bricks were thrown at them during a power cut, and that they did not retaliate. Neither newspaper reported evidence of conversion at the convention.
A senior police official at Krishnanagar said: “A complaint has been received and an investigation is on,” The Indian Express reported. The reports reviewed carry no First Information Report (FIR) number and no arrests as of 14 October. An FIR is the written record police register when told of a serious offence, and the usual starting point of a criminal investigation.
“We have stopped our programme,” Father George said. As per media reports civil authorities ordered the gathering halted, citing security concerns and the lack of administrative approval for such a large event, though the organisers say they had the district magistrate’s permission. No written order has been reported.
The AICU placed Jalalkhali within “a pattern of hostility that has intensified since the Bharatiya Janata Party took office in West Bengal in May 2026 under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.” The BJP is the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The union cited a 22 September report by the monitoring group India Hate Lab, which documented at least 60 incidents targeting Christians in 13 districts between 13 May and 20 September. The fact-checking website Alt News separately recorded 35 incidents between 1 July and 20 September.
AICU National Vice President Alexander Anthony said the figures raise serious questions about whether state police and administration are protecting Christians’ constitutional rights, and said the union has planned a protest.
The AICU said Christian groups have complained to the National Human Rights Commission and two other rights bodies, noting that “FIRs have been registered in only 13 of the dozens of reported cases, usually after extraordinary effort and legal intervention.”
“The silence of the Chief Minister and the Union Home Minister has led many Christians to suspect that senior officials and the ruling party tolerate the violence,” the statement said. The Union Home Minister is India’s federal home minister.
The AICU asked police to make public the status of every FIR over attacks on Christian congregations and to give victims copies of their complaints. It also sought an independent review of incidents in Nadia, Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, South 24 Parganas and other districts, “including any police failures and the arrest of victims in place of assailants.” It urged the commissions to take suo motu cognisance, meaning to act on their own initiative, and order a high-level independent inquiry.
Herod Mullick, founder of the advocacy group Bangiyo Christiyo Pariseba (Bengal Christian Council), rejected claims that Christians started the clash by throwing stones. “That is completely untrue,” he told media.
No public response from the West Bengal government to the attack or to the AICU statement had been reported by 14 October.
