Actor Harshika Poonacha, who works predominantly in Kannada movies, claimed she and her husband Bhuvann Ponnannaa were harassed for speaking in the local language by a group of men who also tried to rob them.

In an extensive Instagram post with videos and photos of the alleged attackers, the actor asked, “How safe are we locals in our Bangalore? Are we living in Pakistan or Afghanistan?“

According to the actor, she had stepped out to have dinner with her husband and family at the Karama Restaurant near Bangalore’s upscale Fraser Town on April 2. As they left the restaurant and sat in their car, the actor said they were attacked by a group of men.

Narrating the harrowing experience, she wrote, “A couple of days ago, I went to have dinner with my family at a restaurant called “Karama” on Masjid Road in Pulikeshi Nagar near Fraser Town area. After dinner, we were leaving the valet parking after taking our car, when two men suddenly appeared near the driver-side window and started arguing that our vehicle was so big that if it suddenly moved it might touch them. 

“My husband asked them to leave because they were talking about a possible incident and it didn’t make sense. We moved the vehicle a little further and by then, these two men started abusing us in their language and even tried to hit my husband in the face and said, ‘These local Kannadigas should be taught a lesson.’ My husband was very patient and didn’t react much…” she wrote.

Within minutes, she alleged, around 30 men from the same gang gathered and tried to snatch her husband’s gold chain and broke it as her husband resisted the snatching.

“… Two of them tore my husband’s gold chain and tried to pull it towards them… My husband realised just in time and held on to it and gave it to me. They damaged the car and tried to physically abuse us by saying things that neither we nor the others could understand.

“My husband did not react much since there were women and family in our car. Also, what I noticed was that they had a problem with us speaking in Kannada. ‘Yeh local Kannada wala hai (these are local Kannada people),’ they said. It agitated them more when my husband and I spoke in Kannada only,” she claimed.

She soon made a call to the inspector she knew from the area and the men “dispersed in a fraction of a second like nothing had happened”. “We tried looking for them but they had disappeared into thin air in a matter of seconds,” she added.

However, the actor got no help from the local police, she claimed. “We found a patrol police vehicle nearby and narrated the incident to Mr Umesh, the Assistant Sub-Inspector, from the nearby police station, he did not seem keen to help us. He said we should talk to the higher-ups in the department and did not even have the courtesy to come and find out what happened.”

Flagging the police official’s blatant apathy, she said, “He wanted to drink the moosambi juice that he was drinking in front of a restaurant just two buildings ahead.”

The police, however, said they have not received any complaint in the case yet. “The incident happened on April 2. We contacted the concerned and asked them to file a complaint. They have asked for more time. We are waiting,” they said.

Ms Poonacha said she didn’t file a police complaint since her family thought their safety was important.

 Iran’s foreign minister on Friday said Tehran was investigating an overnight attack on Iran, adding that so far a link to Israel had not been proven as he downplayed the strike.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told NBC News the drones took off from inside Iran and flew for a few hundred meters before being downed.

“They’re … more like toys that our children play with, not drones,” Amirabdollahian said.

“It has not been proved to us that there is a connection between these and Israel,” he said, adding that Iran was investigating the matter but that media reports were not accurate, according to Tehran’s information.

Iranian media and officials described a small number of explosions, which they said resulted from air defenses hitting three drones over Isfahan in central Iran in the early hours of Friday. They referred to the incident as an attack by “infiltrators”, rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.

Amirabdollahian warned that if Israel retaliated and acted against the interests of Iran, Tehran’s next response would be immediate and at maximum level.

“If Israel wants to do another adventurism and acts against the interests of Iran, our next response will be immediate and will be at the maximum level,” Amirabdollahian said.

The attack appeared to target an Iranian Air Force base near the city of Isfahan, deep inside the country, but without striking any strategic sites or causing major damage.

Israel has said nothing about the incident. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States had not been involved in any offensive operations, while the White House said it had no comment.

CALIBRATED RETALIATION

Israel had said it would retaliate after a strike on April 13, the first ever direct attack on Israel by Iran, which caused no deaths after Israel and its allies shot down hundreds of missiles and drones.

Tehran launched those attacks in response to a presumed Israeli airstrike on April 1 that destroyed a building in Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus and killed several Iranian officers including a top general.

Allies including the U.S. had pressed all week to ensure any further retaliation would be calibrated not to provoke more escalation, and Western countries tightened sanctions on Iran to mollify Israel.

There was no word from Israel on Friday as to whether further action might be planned. Apart from direct strikes on Iranian territory, it has other ways of attacking, including cyber attacks and strikes on Iranian proxies elsewhere.

Violence between Israel and Iranian proxies across the Middle East has intensified throughout six months of bloodshed in Gaza, raising fears the longstanding foes’ shadow war could spiral into a direct conflict.

Israel’s assault on Gaza began after Hamas Islamists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military offensive has killed 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Gazan health ministry.

As night fell on Friday, Israeli planes and tanks pounded several areas across the Gaza Strip, with air strikes hitting areas of Rafah where over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are sheltering, according to residents, Hamas media and officials at the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

One strike hit two apartments in a residential building in the city, killing nine people, including four children, and wounding several others, health officials said.

Air strikes also destroyed at least five houses in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, residents and Hamas media said.

“They (Israeli security) phoned some residents and ordered them to evacuate their houses before planes bombed some buildings nearby,” Abu Omar, a resident of Al-Nuseirat, told Reuters via a chat app.

“Soon as we ran away explosions shook the ground,” he added.

Israel’s government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Manipur’s election marred by gunshots, poll boycotts, low turnout in hill districts. Riot-displaced voters, ethnic conflict, and minimal campaigning. Home minister Amit Shah’s rally the main campaign activity.