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| Saffron rage |
The incident took place in Mangalore on Friday. The girl Shruti is daughter of a Kerala MLA. Suspected workers of Sri Ram Sena (spelt as Ram Sene in Kannada) and Bajrang Dal forcibly took her away along with her companion.
The boy, Shabeeb, her classmate, was also taken away. The Sene activists assaulted him though they didn't touch the girl. They were journeying in a bus and cracking a joke, which apparently invited the ire of the Sena activists.
When the bus had halted at a stoppage, the activists dragged them out of the bus and slapped them, sources said. They were taken to an undisclosed place. Apparently someone onboard the bus had phoned the anti-social elements and called them.
"My daughter was forcibly brought down and pushed into an auto-rickshaw and taken away because the youth belonged to the other community said CH Kunhambu, the Kerala MLA.
However, they were confined for a couple of hours and later set afree. Karnataka police confirmed that both had been freed and were safe. They were returning to the college after their holidays when the incident occurred.
Sri Ram Sena, an extremist Hindu organisation, has been involved in moral policing. It has attacked Churches in the past and recently beat up women for visiting pubs in Mangalore.
The Sena chief Pramod Muthalik has warned that his cadre would not tolerate any indecency on St Valentine's Day. "We can't tolerate Christian values and culture thrust on our youths", he had said soon after his release from police custody after the pub attack.
TIH Bureau
