Two incidents of moral policing based on religion in buses at Mangalore in coastal Karnataka have shown how the menace now imperils day-to-day life and its ubiquitous symbols and how deep-rooted the network of the vigilantes is.

A Muslim boy and a Hindu girl travelling in a night bus to Bangalore were waylaid by suspected Bajrang Dal activists in Mangalore around 10pm on Thursday and harassed. A video of the incident shows the girl confronting the men until they back off, but what she says is not clearly audible.

In the other case, a Muslim man who had offered to hold the bag of a young woman in a crowded bus in Mangalore on Wednesday was dragged down and beaten back and blue with tree branches.

In the first instance, the identities of the boy and the girl had been revealed by the names on their bus tickets, and the attackers were tipped off possibly by a bus employee. In the second instance, videos suggest the man, Ishak, was identified by his appearance and accent.

A senior leader of the Bajrang Dal in Karnataka said such attacks “would continue to happen as long as they try to lure Hindu girls”. Mangalore and other areas in coastal Karnataka have over the years witnessed several incidents of harassment and assault in the name of “love jihad”.

The bus carrying the Muslim boy and Hindu girl to Bangalore had started around 9.30pm and was stopped by the group of suspected Bajrang Dal activists around an hour later at Dasakodi near Mangalore city. The video, shared widely on social media, shows the girl standing her ground and refusing to follow the diktats of the men. The high drama on the Mangalore-Bangalore highway stalled the bus for several minutes before the men left.

The plight of Ishak, a 43-year-old mason, was worse. He was travelling to his workplace on Wednesday morning on a city bus when a co-passenger verbally abused him for offering to hold the bag of a young woman. The man accused Ishak of harassing women.

Two more men boarded the bus at the next stop near Moodabidri and forced Ishak to alight and get into an autorickshaw.

“They abused me saying I was troubling the girls while I had only held the bag of a student since the bus was packed. They took me to Rai (a nearby locality) and assaulted me with branches they tore off a tree,” he told local reporters.

Ishak was left with bruises on his face and body and bloody eyes. “They fled as people began to gather. After I went home I got myself admitted to a hospital since the pain was unbearable,” Ishak said.

While four Bajrang Dal activists identified as Manohar, Shibin, Chetan and Kishore have been arrested in this case, no arrest has been made over Thursday’s incident.

Ishak said he saw the bus conductor calling someone over the phone. “I saw the conductor speak to someone. But I couldn’t hear what he said,” Ishak said, suggesting the conductor may have tipped off the vigilantes.

If true, it would confirm the widely held view that Sangh parivar vigilantes have bus drivers, conductors, and auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers as their informers apart from local people and shopkeepers.

A similar incident was reported on November 24 when college student Syed Rashid Ummer, 20, was assaulted for sitting with a Hindu woman friend on a bus in Mangalore. A student at a private college in Karkala, Ummer was dragged out and assaulted. A traffic policeman came to his rescue.

These incidents coincide with a rising demand for a special law against love jihad — a Sangh parivar coinage alleging a Muslim plot to lure Hindu girls into marriage and religious conversion. The Hindu Janajagruti Samithi has called for a protest in Bangalore on Saturday to demand an “Anti-Love Jihad Police Force” and a total ban on halal certificates to products.

Raghu Sakleshpura, Karnataka co-ordinator of the Bajrang Dal, blamed Muslim youths for such interventions from Sangh parivar organisations. “We have come across many cases in which our girls get lured into a trap with their private moments being filmed. They are then blackmailed with these video clips,” he told The Telegraph on Friday.

“Such incidents (attacks) will continue to happen as long as they try to lure Hindu girls. Let’s see it as a reaction from the larger society that has become watchful about suspicious movements of young couples. They are the ones who inform us,” Sakleshpura added.

The police had arrested four Bajrang Dal workers on Sunday for assaulting a Muslim salesman at a jewellery shop in Mangalore for talking with his Hindu woman colleague who had joined a few weeks ago.

In another incident, Bajrang Dal activists had thrashed two Muslim youths for roaming with two Hindu college girls late on Saturday. The girls, who are siblings, were out with the two youths looking for an eatery when they were confronted by the activists. A passing police patrol intervened and defused the situation.