BANGALORE, India (AFP) — Indian police on Friday rounded up members of a Hindu extremist group who had allegedly threatened to marry off young couples found together on Valentine's Day.
Pramod Mutalik, the head of the Sri Ram Sena (SRS) or Lord Ram's Army, and some of his followers were taken into preventive custody, the police chief of Karnataka state's Gulbarga district, B.A. Padmananaina, told AFP.
"This is a preventive measure ahead of Valentine's Day," he said.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported over 100 activists were detained across the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
Mutalik and his little known SRS made headlines last month when they beat up young women having drinks at a trendy bar in Karnataka's Mangalore city.
Television footage of SRS activists chasing, slapping and kicking the terrified women prompted widespread condemnation.
The attackers, who style themselves as guardians of traditional Hindu values, were briefly detained and then freed on bail.
Mutalik and his followers later threatened to marry off dating couples on Valentine's Day.
"Drinking, socialising, celebrating Valentine's Day is all part of Western culture which is corrupting our Indian culture," SRS general secretary V.K. Rajesh told AFP.
"We are not against love. But we are against loose morals we see among the younger generation who are blindly aping the West. And we will not spare these people and we will take whatever action is needed within the law."
The detentions follow calls by federal Home Minister Palaniappan Chidamabaram urging Karnataka's Hindu nationalist administration to take "preventive and punitive" action to ensure law and order in the state.
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