Indian Christian leaders say they suffered systematic attacks on their faith after a spate of church vandalism and assaults in West Bengal state, they told AFP on Friday.

Churches have been vandalised and pastors assaulted in the Hindu-majority state of 100 million people since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won state elections in May.

Hundreds of Christians marched through the state capital Kolkata on Thursday.

“For the last five months, we’ve seen systematic attacks being organised against Christians, and the pretext is unlawful conversions,” Herod Mullick of the Bangiya Christiya Pariseba (BCP), which organised the march, told AFP.

Christian groups have been accused of trying to convert Hindus to Christianity.

Christians account for less than one per cent of West Bengal’s population, according to the last national census.

Mullick’s BCP said it had documented 48 instances of “vandalism and atrocities targeting prayer meetings, worship centres and churches” over the past five months, calling it “an unprecedented crisis”.

AFP could not independently verify that figure, but other Christian organisations and research groups have also reported alleged attacks.

The ruling BJP has rejected the allegations.

A state minister has said freedom of worship must be protected, but that complaints of forced conversions would be investigated.

The Catholic Association of the Archdiocese of Delhi said in a statement it was “deeply shaken by… the terror being inflicted upon innocent Christians in West Bengal”.

The All India Catholic Union condemned a mob attack on a Bible conference in West Bengal’s Nadia district on October 9, when around 200 people stormed a church, smashing decorations and injuring at least six people.

The Washington-based India Hate Lab research group said in a September report that it had documented 60 incidents targeting Christians in West Bengal after the BJP took power, including assaults, vandalism and raids on prayer meetings.

Mullick said he was seeking a meeting with the chief of the Hindu nationalist RSS, or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the BJP.

The RSS and BJP have long accused Christians of forcibly converting Hindus, allegations the community vehemently denies.

India has 1.4 billion people and more than two per cent are Christians, according to the last census. Christians say their religion has been present in India for nearly two millennia.