Mangalore pub attack unacceptable act: Rajnath

Faced with mounting criticism over the attack on women in a Mangalore pub, the BJP has termed it as an "unacceptable act of hooliganism" while regretting that its political opponents were levelling allegations against the Sangh without verifying facts.

"The Karnataka government has already initiated strong action against the unacceptable act of hooliganism that took place in Mangalore. The BJP condemns the incident in totality," BJP president Rajnath Singh told reporters here.

However, he said, it was "unfortunate that our political opponents and the so-called secularists, suffer from an RSS-BJP phobia. They tend to level allegations without even verifying the facts".

Around 15 to 20 activists, reportedly belonging to Sri Ram Sena, had barged into a local pub in Mangalore on Saturday night and beat up women accusing them of behaving in an 'obscene manner'.

Some sections have sought to link the Sangh Parivar to the incident in which more than a dozen men barged into a local pub in Mangalore on Saturday night and beat up women stating they were going against Indian culture and tradition.

Launching an attack on the Congress, the BJP chief said, "With the Lok Sabha elections around the corner, one should not be surprised if the Congress dumps its 'aam admi' plank and plans another slogan to confuse another section of society".

Meanwhile, eight more persons, including some top officials of the right wing group were arrested on Monday in connection with the attack, taking the total number of arrested persons to 25.

Police said eight more persons were taken into custody late on Monday evening.

The Sri Ram Sena activists arrested include district convenor Subash Padil, district vice-convenor Kishore and city convenor, Ganesh.

All the accused have been produced before the judicial magistrate and they will be in custody till Tuesday, police added.