Right-Wing Group Attacks Girls Seen with Muslim Boy in Mangaluru

One of the men attacked the students, even as the police were taking them to safety.

Screengrab from mobile video showing one of the fringe group members attacking the student. 

(Photo: The Quint)

The members of a Hindu right-wing group attacked two teenage students, who were seen with a Muslim boy at water theme park, in the outskirts of Mangaluru city, on Tuesday, 2 January.

A man from the group was seen heckling one of the girls, in front of the police officer escorting the girls out of the park.

The incident took place in the morning at a water theme park in Pilikula, in the outskirts of Mangaluru. According to sources, the boy and the two girls were students pursuing their first year PUC (higher secondary) in the same college.

While the girls were Hindu, the boy was a Muslim.

Sources said that some visitors at the theme park informed the fringe group after spotting the students at the park. The students were hit several times by these men, who asked them to call their parents.

The video also showed the men heckling the students, even as they were being escorted by the cops. 

It was only after the police arrived that the girls were escorted out of the theme park. But a mobile phone footage showed the men following the girls and heckling them, even as they were being escorted by the police. At one point, one of the men was seen hitting the girl on her head, despite the presence of a policeman.

Two men, including the man seen in the video, have been detained by Mangaluru rural police. No FIR has been registered so far.

This attack comes days after an aspiring actor called out police officials for harassing her friend, a Muslim youth, and she at Subramanya police station in the district.

In a video message published last week, the actress had alleged that her friend and she were attacked by police, because they belonged to different communities.

Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police, who conducted an inquiry, said the constables acted in an ‘inappropriate manner’ with the women, and promised to take disciplinary action against the constable, head constable and the in-charge at the station at the time of the incident.