Kolkata: The prayer house in Haridevpur has decided to suspend its Sunday prayers following threats from locals on Sunday evening. Church members are seeking legal advice to file a complaint with Haridevpur Police Station after learning that the intruders had reportedly lodged a complaint against them first.Anil Dolui, evangelist-in-charge, said, “We heard that those who came to threaten us have lodged a complaint against us. In light of that, we are also seeking legal advice to file a counter-complaint.”During a regular house prayer service conducted by the Sodepur branch of the Mizo Synod (Mizoram Presbyterian Church) on Sunday evening, a group of locals reportedly targeted the gathering. They allegedly arrived chanting “Jai Shree Ram” and tried to force their way into the prayer room. Accusing the group of carrying out forced religious conversions, they demanded an immediate halt to all worship services and threatened the landlord with dire consequences if the church was not permanently shut down within 10 days.Dolui said, “After this incident, the landlord was terrified and asked us not to conduct services to avoid further trouble. Out of respect for her request, we decided to stop all worship services and prayers.”Following the incident, on Moday morning, church me bers had met Behala Purba MLA Sankar Sikdar. Later on Monday, 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 police station 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.”Dolui said, “After our discussion with him, we had decided not to file a police complaint. However, once we learned that the intruders who threatened us have lodged a complaint, we realised we couldn’t sit quietly. I had tried to make them understand that the allegations against us were completely baseless, but they refused to listen.”The Haridevpur police did not respond to TOI queries on the incident.In another incident reported from Bolpur, pastor Mangal Barui and his family were beaten up, and his wife was forced to follow Hindu rituals. Barui said, “We are very anxious as they threatened that they would come again.”
