As part of the election coverage, the Organiser team travelled through various areas in Jharkhand, including Pakur, a town within the contentious Santhal Pargana region.
The Santhal Pargana region in Jharkhand has emerged as a battleground ahead of the state assembly polls, with political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raising concerns over illegal settlements of Bangladeshis. The BJP has accused the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government of allowing these settlements to persist, which it claims could shift the region’s demographics.
In the past few years, many areas of the Santhal Pargana region had to bear the brunt of the rising Muslim population, which could be because of two major reasons—one could be organic and the other could be rising illegal settlements.
One such village is Gopinathpur, a Hindu village located amid surrounding Muslim bastis. “Turn around, and wherever you look, you will only see Muslims. We are surrounded by them—North, West, East, and South,” shared a local villager, highlighting the isolation felt by the Hindu community in Gopinathpur.
Located about 20 kilometres from Pakur, Gopinathpur lies on the border of West Bengal, separated by a river marking the boundary between the two states. Across the river lies Murshidabad, West Bengal. During informal discussions about the elections, a villager from Gopinathpur explained the voting pattern, noting that the entire village supports the BJP.
“The whole village votes for the BJP. We have over 300 Hindu households here and only one Muslim family,” he said. His concerns, however, went beyond political allegiance. He expressed a rare plea for security: “We want a Central Force unit stationed in the village.”
This unusual demand for a Central Force deployment unit stemmed from a violent Hindu-Muslim clash that erupted around five months earlier. The incident began when Hindu villagers objected to the lone Muslim family in the village slaughtering a cow on their land. The tension reached a peak on June 17, the day of Bakrid (Eid-ul-Adha), when members of the Muslim family slaughtered a cow on a Hindu villager’s property.
300 Hindu families live with one Muslim family, still in fear
According to locals, this act deeply disturbed the Hindu community and led to a serious confrontation. The situation escalated rapidly, resulting in a man’s death, the burning of more than ten Hindu houses, and violent attacks on Hindu families.
Radhanath Mandal, a 60-year-old resident, recounted the events leading up to the riot. A cow from Kandhaipur village wandered into Gopinathpur while grazing. Five or six people from Kandhaipur came to take her back, but she would not move. Eventually, they dragged her to the outskirts of the village, where a Muslim man came and said, ‘If she’s not moving, leave her here,’ Radhanath recalled. He added, By ‘leave her,’ they meant they wanted to slaughter her. Many people came out and started demanding to slaughter the cow, but the Hindus were determined to take her back.
Despite the objections from Hindu villagers, the Muslim family forcibly took the cow and slaughtered it on the Hindu villager’s land, close to his home. Radhanath shared: “Our village, which is predominantly Hindu, strongly opposed this, but they still managed to slaughter the cow right in front of us.”
The tensions simmered throughout the day. Villagers from Kandhaipur, who had initially come to take the cow, attempted to diffuse the situation by apologising to the Muslim family, even offering to take the remains of the cow for last rites. Police eventually arrived and were able to calm things down, but the peace was short-lived.
“We will chop you all and eat it with the cow meat,” Muslims tell Hindus
Radhanath recounted how one of the Muslim men then issued a chilling threat, saying, “We will slaughter the Hindus too and eat them with the cow meat.” This remark further fuelled anger among the Hindu villagers, who demanded immediate action against him. Though police were able to contain the tension temporarily, the village’s relief was short-lived. By the morning of June 18, over a thousand Muslims from neighbouring West Bengal, along with others from nearby Muslim-dominated villages, stormed into Gopinathpur.
“The mob surrounded our village from all directions,” said another female villager, recalling the terror of that morning. The mob attacked Hindu homes with stones and even hurled crude bombs.
Ritu Mandal, a resident of the same village whose home came under attack during the recent violence, vividly recounted the terror she experienced. “Thousands of Muslims crossed the river and entered this village,” she told Organiser, pointing toward the Bansloi River, a natural border separating Jharkhand and West Bengal.
They came fully armed with bombs, stones, sticks, and swords. They were hurling abuses at the Hindus and charging at them. Women and children rushed indoors for safety, while the men tried to guard the houses, she explained, her voice still tinged with fear from the day of attack.
As the mob’s number grew, the men struggled to hold their ground. “They outnumbered us, and after a while, even the men were indoors. We locked ourselves inside the last room,” she said, pointing to a sturdy iron door that bore marks from the attack. “They were shouting, ‘Raze this entire village, kill and chop up the Hindus!’ I could hear the bombs going off outside, and one even hit our door. Thankfully, it’s made of iron, so it didn’t break,” she added.
Radhanath, another villager, joined the conversation, expressing frustration that Ritu had taken her husband inside the house that day instead of joining the defense efforts. “They were all inside. I will tell you what really happened that day,” he claimed, his voice rising as he recalled the intense standoff.
Radhanath described how the tensions started: When the Hindus objected to the cow slaughter, the Muslims responded, ‘If you speak up too much, we will cut you up and eat you along with the cow meat,’ all while brandishing a knife at the Hindu man whose land was desecrated.
According to Radhanath, only 10-12 Hindu men remained to face the mob in a village with 300-350 Hindus, as most residents sought refuge inside their homes, fearful of the overwhelming force. If the police had not arrived that day, every Hindu in this village would have been killed. “Not a single one of us would be alive,” he said.
North, South, East and West: All Muslims
Radhanath, elaborated on the precarious situation faced by Hindus in the region. “Gopinathpur is the only Hindu village here, surrounded on all sides by Muslim villages—from the north, south, east, and west. Look around; everywhere you see, it’s all Muslim land,” he explained, listing nearby villages: Murshidabad (in West Bengal), Krishnanagar, Hariganj, and Malancha. There are a few Hindu households in some of these villages, but no more than 10-12 families in any one place, he shared.
When asked if this demographic pattern had existed for decades, Radharam pointed to recent shifts. The area has always had a significant Muslim presence. But only the Muslim population grows in India. He said, the Hindus have been here for generations, yet their numbers have remained stagnant. In the past 50 years, the Hindu village has not expanded. New homes are just squeezed into existing spaces. But every 3-4 years, “Muslims build a new village”.
This does not happen with Hindus; they don’t create new settlements, and their population doesn’t increase, he remarked, pointing toward the end of their lane.
Living in the village has become increasingly fraught with challenges, Radharam shared. Hindus now require police protection to celebrate their festivals even in this Hindu-majority basti. “We are too scared to send our daughters to college, fearing harassment,” he said, describing the environment in the basti.
Next time, the police won’t come to save you
Threats have become all too common since then. Muslims from Bengal boast that they will raze this village completely. They say, “From Chandpur to Gopinathpur, we will block the road with our lorries. No police will come to save you, and you won’t even be able to call for help.” he recounted, quoting the intimidating words he and his neighbours have endured.
When asked if they felt pressured to sell their homes and leave, Radharam was candid. “They don’t say it directly to our faces, but it’s clear that’s what they want,” he replied, a bitter expression crossing his face.
“My house was burnt, my wife was molested”
As the conversation continued, Radharam described how the mob targeted homes at the entrance of the village, setting them ablaze, looting, and vandalising them. Organiser visited these sites, meeting with residents who had lost everything in the chaos. The scars of the violence remain evident throughout Gopinathpur, a testament to the turmoil that has plagued this small village and its determined yet beleaguered Hindu community.
Sudhir Mandal, whose house has been burnt, shared the horrifying sequence of events that unfolded on June 17. “It started when a group of Muslims began a confrontation as Hindus objected to the slaughter of a cow in the village,” he recalled.
“They boldly declared they would kill the cow wherever they wished, and if anyone tried to stop them, they would kill us too and cook along with the cow meat.” Sudhir explained that the few Hindus—just five or six—who were present to intervene quickly realised they were vastly outnumbered and rushed back to the village. He described how over 200-250 Muslims had gathered, but the situation was temporarily brought under control by the arrival of the police.
“We thought the trouble was over,” Sudhir continued, “but we were wrong.” The next day, June 18, around 11-11:30 am, a far larger mob—over 10,000 people—encircled the village from all directions. “They were shouting, ‘We’ll kill every Hindu here and then take over this entire area for ourselves,’” Sudhir recalled.
As the mob surged forward, they even began marking out houses, declaring who would take which home after killing the Hindus. “They pointed out homes one by one, as if deciding in advance what they would claim once we were gone.”
Sudhir recounted how his house was one of those targeted in the attack. “They came to my house, breaking in with a crowbar,” he said, his face tightening as he described the scene. From there, they moved to the home of Deepsan Mandal, setting it ablaze, then to Arunai Mandal’s shanty, which was also torched. “They smashed Manik Rajbonshi’s house with stones and bricks, attacked Prabhanjan Mandal’s property, and targeted homes of Ram Ratan Mandal, Dinesh Mandal, and many others.”
When the police arrived on June 18, around 50-60 officers were deployed to restore order. But the mob was relentless, and one officer sustained severe injuries after being attacked. Sudhir recalled, they even set one of the police officer’s bikes on fire and threw another into the river.
As the mob grew more uncontrollable, the police fired warning shots into the air, eventually firing five to seven rounds in an attempt to disperse the crowd. When these warnings failed, the police were forced to fire a shot at one of the attackers, who was killed, which finally led to the mob returning.
“Will take less than 10 minutes to kill you all..”
Even after that, the ordeal for the villagers was far from over. “The matter is still not resolved. They continue to threaten us,” Sudhir said, recounting the warnings the villagers receive regularly. “They tell us, ‘The water in the river won’t last till summer, and when the river dries up, we will come here and kill every Hindu. It won’t take us more than ten minutes,’” he shared.
Deepsan Mandal, another villager, shared the trauma his family endured. “I had gone to work, and my elder daughter was at school, so only my wife and younger daughter were home when the attack happened,” he said. His voice broke as he described the assault on his wife and younger daughter. “They even molested my elder daughter at school,” he added.
When Deepsan returned home, he found his house in flames. “Seeing my home like that left my mind blank,” he said. “They destroyed everything; my two cycles were burnt,” he added, pointing at one of the charred cycles nearby. “The attackers caused damage worth over two lakh rupees,” he claimed.
As elections draw near, Deepsan noted that the attackers have grown silent but continue to issue threats. “They keep reminding us, ‘We will kill you, chop you up. How long can the police protect you?’” he said.
Is voting for BJP a sin?
Sudhir suggested that the villagers’ political allegiance may have made them a target. “Our entire village votes for the BJP in every election,” he said, hinting that this might have fuelled the attack on their Hindu basti. Every villager we spoke to demanded one thing: the deployment of a central police force. “Without central police protection, our village will be destroyed, and we will all be killed,” Sudhir stated emphatically.
In an emotional appeal, he expressed his desperation: “Mere gaon me police camp hona chahiye—Rajya police nahi, kendriya police—tab mera gaon surakshit rahega. Hindu mar jayega. Hindu poora nahi marega, par mere gaon ka Hindu mar jayega,” he said, his voice filled with desperation and fear. He continued, “Mark my words; if nothing is done, in one or two months you will hear that no Hindus remain in this village. Either set up a central police camp here quickly or we won’t survive.”
He continued with a tone of urgency and desperation, “Dekhiyega, ek mahine baad, do mahine baad aapke paas khabar aaegi, Hindu gaon nahi raha,” he said, painting a bleak picture of their future.
The villagers’ appeals are directed at the central government, as they claim no minister from the ruling Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government visited them after the attack, nor offered any form of support. “Not a single minister came to check on us, let alone offer help or compensation,” Sudhir said. He noted that only Nishikant Dubey, a BJP MP, had visited, promising he would address their concerns. Sudhir concluded bitterly, “No Hindu is safe under Soren’s government in Jharkhand.”
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