West Bengal Christian couple alleges eviction threats after Howrah house prayer; church body cites 26 incidents

Putul and Kanchan Manna, residents of Ghoraberia Dakshin Bhatora village in Amta, Howrah district, told The Times of India that on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, a group of men entered their home during a private prayer meeting, told them to renounce Christianity and convert to Hinduism, and warned that they would otherwise be forcibly evicted. Putul said an armed group returned the following night, surrounded the house, and abused the couple in front of their sons, one of them 10 years old. She said she had thought of leaving but asked why her sons should be evicted from their ancestral home, and that she had lodged a police complaint. The Times of India report does not give a First Information Report number or name the police station. Those are the family’s claims as TOI recorded them.

Separately, The Times of India reported that Bangiya Christiya Pariseba wrote to the West Bengal chief minister on Thursday, September 17, citing security concerns for places of worship. In that letter, BCP said that over about three months it had documented 26 persecution cases and that 11 FIRs had been filed, and that most of those complaints had seen no action — BCP’s documented claims, not audited statewide totals. The September 18 Howrah piece quoted Herrod Mullick, named there as BCP founding state secretary (an earlier Faith & World Brief recorded the same official as Herod Mullick), saying vigilantes were taking the law into their own hands and that complaints were not producing concrete action. This brief records the Manna family’s account and BCP’s letter as two attributed reports. It does not merge them into one unattributed wave of incidents.