Christian prayer hall in south Kol faces threats, landlord warned
Times of India | 11 August 2026
Kolkata: Some Christians from the Haridevpur area were threatened on Sunday while offering prayers at a house.
Around 5 to 10 locals arrived chanting 'Jai Shri Ram’ around 7.10 pm on Sunday, alleging forced religious conversions taking place. Anil Dolui, in charge of the prayer sessions, said, "Since there was no church in our locality, we rented this place and have been performing prayers here since 2014 and have never faced such trouble before. Every Sunday, we gather here to offer prayers and hold religious discussions, and we were doing the same today. All of a sudden, they entered chanting 'Jai Shri Ram’, asked us to halt all worship services, and threatened the landlord with dire consequences if these activities were not permanently shut down within 10 days.”
After the incident, they informed the local police station, but no formal complaint has been lodged yet. Dolui and a few others met the local MLA, Sankar Sikdar, on Monday morning. Sikdar told TOI, "They came to me, and I assured them they could perform their religious activities without any interruption, but conversion is not acceptable. The local PS is looking into the matter, and if they find any instance of forced conversion, action will be taken as per the law. I told them this as well.”
Herod Mullick, the state secretary and spokesperson of Bangiya Christiya Pariseba, said, "A calculated narrative is being propagated to spread hatred against the Church, utilizing a predictable pattern of false conversion allegations to send dangerous signals across the nation through various social media platform. However, we also observe a very positive counter-narrative, as sons of Bengal's soil — many conscientious citizens, local workers, and leadership from the BJP — are stepping forward to defend our heritage of harmony. Bengal possesses an inherent immunity against the virus of religious fanaticism.”
Haridevpur police said no complaint was lodged in the police station naming anyone.
This is not an isolated incident. In another incident reported from Bolpur, local pastor Mangal Barui and his family were beaten up, and his wife was threatened and forced to follow Hindu rituals. Barui said, "I do not know the people who came, but we are very anxious after the incident as they threatened that they would come again. We went to the local police, but they have not taken any action yet.”