In an extremely shameful incident reported in Mangalore, a Muslim man was stripped, tied to a pole and flogged for more than an hour at a crowded marketplace. This was for allegedly speaking to a Hindu woman in the communally polarised coastal town of Mangalore.
Hindustan Times reported that after the local cable television channels began beaming visuals of the man, Policemen reached the spot. They arrested 14 of around 30 suspected Bajrang Dal activists who were taking turns to flog him.
The victim here is the manager of an accessories store in Mangalore and the woman works in the same store as a salesgirl. In his complaint to the police, he said that the woman had asked him for a loan of Rs. 2,000. When they were on their way to an ATM to withdraw cash, a gang of men armed with knives and staves accosted them.
The woman managed to escape without facing much harm, but she too was slapped for trying to come to her colleague’s defence.
Over the past decade, seven such attacks have been reported in the coastal towns of Mangalore, Udupi, Honnavar, Bhatkal and Karwa. The groups involved in them were the Bajrang Dal, Sri Rama Sene, Hindu Jagarana Vedike and the Islamist group, Popular Front of India.
What has our nation come to?
News and image sourced from Hindustan Times
