Mangalore: In an incident that has assumed a communal tinge, a group of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad supporters allegedly assaulted a girl at her college in Bellare, Sullia taluk, on Tuesday afternoon. The FIR, however, was registered by the Sullia police only on Wednesday evening, with a counter complaint coming immediately from the accused.

The students had allegedly roughed up the final year B.A. student for not participating in the ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by the ABVP.

According to eye-witnesses, students supporting the bandh had walked out of their classes en masse on Tuesday morning in a planned protest against the UPA government’s involvement in the controversial allocation of coal. Though classes were cancelled, a few non-Hindu students remained in their classroom.

Around 1 p.m., a group of at least nine protesting students came to the Arts block of the college where the girl and her friends were chatting. “They asked us why we were still in class, and why we were not out there supporting the strike. When we said we weren’t interested, they badmouthed us,” said a student.

When the girl stormed out of the classroom, the ABVP activists gheraoed her and allegedly manhandled her. The group fled when other students came to her help.

Students said the management intervened and the activists were made to apologise. However, when the girl was returning home a few hours later, the boys followed her, allegedly assaulting her again. She was later admitted with minor injuries to a hospital in Puttur.-The Hindu