Bengal's Bloodiest Secrets
The Sainbari Killings, the Marichjhapi Massacre, and the Bijon Setu murders — three chapters history tried to bury.
These three historic events represent the darkest, most violent chapters of political suppression and state-sponsored atrocities in West Bengal — spanning the early years and consolidation of Left-wing dominance in the region.
The Sainbari Killings One family. One night. Unspeakable horror.
The Sainbari incident took place in Bardhaman during a period of intense political instability, right after the first United Front government — which included the CPI(M) — collapsed. It remains one of the most dreaded political murders in Bengal's history.
The Sain family were prominent, well-to-do loyalists of the Indian National Congress. Their connection to a rival political camp made them targets in a climate of escalating cadre violence.
A massive violent mob of CPI(M) supporters surrounded the Sain residence. Attackers hurled flaming arrows from all sides to set the house ablaze. Two brothers — Pranab Sain and Moloy Sain — were hacked and speared to death in front of their family. A private tutor, Jiten Ray, who happened to be present, was also murdered.
In a horrific display of cruelty, the attackers mixed the brothers' blood with rice and forcibly fed it to their traumatized mother, Mriganayani Devi. Another brother, Nabakumar Sain, had acid poured into his eyes — and was later tracked down and beheaded a full year later.
The Marichjhapi Massacre 40,000 refugees. A government blockade. Mass graves in the delta.
The Marichjhapi massacre is often described as one of the largest government-perpetrated massacres in independent India. It targeted thousands of Bengali Hindu Dalit — Namasudra — refugees who had fled persecution in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
Before coming to power in 1977, the CPI(M) promised these refugees safe resettlement in West Bengal. Once in power, Chief Minister Jyoti Basu's government reversed its stance entirely, declaring the refugees "outsiders." Defying the government, around 40,000 refugees settled on the desolate island of Marichjhapi in the Sundarbans, building a self-sufficient community with schools and clinics.
Citing environmental protection and unauthorized occupation of forest land, the Left Front government deployed 30 police gunboats on January 24, 1979, implementing a strict economic and physical blockade around the island. Refugees were cut off from food, medicine, and clean drinking water.
On January 31, 1979, police opened fire on the starving refugees. In May 1979, the government launched a final eviction, allegedly burning over 6,000 huts. Hundreds — possibly thousands — died from bullets, starvation, or cholera contracted from drinking brackish river water. Bodies were allegedly dumped into the river, and the media was strictly barred from the area to suppress the actual death toll.
"The state apparatus ensured that no one was held accountable. History was buried along with the bodies."
The Bijon Setu Massacre 17 monks and a nun. Broad daylight. Zero arrests.
The Bijon Setu massacre is a horrific instance of broad-daylight public lynching in the heart of South Kolkata. It targeted the monks and nuns of Ananda Marga — a spiritual organization the CPI(M) viewed as a disciplined, anti-communist ideological threat.
On the morning of April 30, 1982, 16 monks and one nun belonging to the Ananda Marga order were traveling by taxi to an educational conference in Tiljala, Kolkata.
Orchestrated mobs — widely alleged to be organized by local CPI(M) cadres — simultaneously intercepted the vehicles at three separate locations: Bondel Gate, Ballygunge railway station, and the Bijon Setu bridge. The monks and nun were dragged onto the street, beaten with iron rods, and set on fire with petrol in front of thousands of onlookers.
The state government and sympathetic media initially dismissed the lynching as spontaneous public outrage triggered by rumors of "child-lifting." Despite the murders occurring in broad daylight in public view, not a single arrest was ever made. No one was held accountable for the 17 lives lost.