"Ruminating in this fashion, he lit a cigarette. His attention was drawn to a thin book lying on top of the table. He had never seen the book before. It was about the communal conflict of 1990 and he opened itand was soon engrossed in it. On 30 October 1990, at 1 a.m,, the residents of Panchanandhaam Ashram woke up to the sound of a slogan-shouting procession. The processionists broke open the front gate and breached the boundary wall, abused the ashramites, poured kerosene on a temporary shed and started a fire. One by one, all the idols were broken, including the top of the shrine over the sadhubaba’s grave, and all the religious books were burnt. The Sanskrit Language Institute was housed on the same plot as the Ashram. The crowd ransacked the book shelves, burnt the valuable books and looted whatever money they could find. On the same day, around midnight, approximately 2,500 armed people attacked the Sadarghat Kalibari with bricks, entered the main temple and broke and destroyed the idols. All the shops and hamlets alongside the Chatteswari Mayer mandir were looted and destroyed. The cremation area of Golpahar was consigned to the flames and the Kali idol (Swasan Kali) was destroyed. A news broadcast by the Voice of America on 30 October night resulted in an assault on Kaibolya Ashram, Every idol and every room in the ashram was torched; the inmates of the ashram fled to the hills. Those who failed to leave were beaten with iron rods or brutalized in other ways. The temple was damaged badly. Something similar occurred at the Haragouri temple; the idols were smashed, all the valuables looted and the religious scriptures burnt to ashes. The area around the temple was left in a shambles and the entire population of the place was rendered homeless. An armed gang attacked the Krishnagopalji temple on Chatteswari Road in the evening. Their total booty was two kilos of silver, 250 grams of gold and other precious items including the idol. The precious sculpture of the cow at the gate and the surrounding pine trees were not spared either. ias colony of Bahaddarhaat was turned into a ghost town—all Hindu houses were looted, the people of the area irrespective of sex and age were brutalized."