KOLKATA, India (UCAN) -- Church people are bringing peace and reconciliation to a village in eastern Indian where police recently killed 14 villagers.

Jesuit Father Xavier Jayaraj has told UCA News that "firing and bombing" continue at night and one can still "feel the tension" in Nandigram, a village in West Bengal state. The Jesuit and 11 other Church people spent five days among the villagers in mid-April.

The village is about 100 kilometers southwest of Kolkata, the state capital, and Calcutta archdiocese's Our Lady of Consolation parish, based in Haldia, serves the area. Calcutta is the old name for Kolkata, which is 1,450 kilometers southeast of New Delhi.

The state's Marxist government is taking over area farmlands to help an Indonesian company develop a "special economic zone" for a 5-billion-rupee (US$118,650,000) chemical industry hub, but villagers oppose the initiative. Police opened fire on March 14 to disperse protesting villagers.

The area reportedly remains tense because Marxist party supporters and party "goons" are terrorizing villagers, forcing them to surrender their lands. Some Marxist party workers have already submitted to the pressure.

Women trying to save their land face abuse and violence from party workers and police. To underscore the severity, Church people cite the case of Indira Rani Das, a 44-year-old woman who was pulled by her hair and beaten. Sister Michael, a member of the visiting Church team, reported: "I have seen her wounds. They are still fresh."

The Divine Savior nun, who documented the case, told UCA News she heard "the most disturbing" story from another woman, Kavita Das, 20. "Her modesty was outraged" in an open field while her six-month-old baby howled at a little distance, the nun said. "Her middle-aged mother and 12-year-old sister met the same fate the next day just because (the woman) spoke against the act."

Father Jayaraj's team noted that political parties have set up "camps" on either side of a canal running between Nandigram and Kejuri "blocks," clusters of villages, and the canal has become "the line of control," the priest said.

Marxist loyalists who have "surrendered" their land set up the Kejuri camp, Father Jayaraj said. The opposition Congress party manages the Nandigram camp.

Hasina Begum, 38, can now see her husband Mohammed Ali every morning on the canal's opposite bank. Ali lives in Kejuri camp because he surrendered his land to prove his loyalty to the party.

"He waves to say he is well," the woman said. Her husband now fears for his teenage daughter and the rest of his family. Begum meanwhile tries to convince people in her Nandigram camp that her husband "was kidnapped" and "forcefully is kept against his will" in the other camp.

"Each side accuses the other of causing violence," Father Jayaraj said. What the Church does now is try to "create a neutral, peaceful zone," he explained.

Father Jayaraj, director of directs Udyani, a Kolkata-based social service center, went with 10 companions to spend Holy Week with the villagers. His team, including priests, nuns and laypeople, was the second Church team to go to the area after the police firing. The first five-member team visited when access to the village was open, 10 days after the incident.

According to Father Reginald Fernandes, who directs Seva Kendra, Cacutta archdiocese's social service and development society, the visiting teams are "neutral" agencies to "ensure protection for the harassed people."

Salesian Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Calcutta says a "Christian presence" re-establishes peace in the area. In a letter to all parishes during Holy Week, he appealed for prayers for "harmony, reconciliation, forgiveness and peace."

Father Fernandes' office has collected money and material from institutions, schools, Religious houses and "people of good will" to help the victims. Father Jayaraj added that some families must be relocated to help them overcome "the traumatic experiences," and children need help to continue their studies.

Meanwhile, all roads to Nandigram block have been dug up. When villagers want to cross the canal, they use makeshift bamboo bridges. Mahapatra, a 45-year-old villager, explained, "We are afraid about who may come, and when."

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