A group of unidentified youths who were armed and wearing masks attacked a village in Belagavi district of Karnataka, said police on Tuesday.

According to officials familiar with the matter, the armed gang from Badarwad village barged into Navage village, “pelted stones at houses and damaged the property in the early hours of Tuesday.

The attackers, reportedly minors, hail from Belagavi rural constituency, according to women and child development minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar. Soon after the incident, the minister visited the affected village.

After her visit, the minister while talking to the reporters said, “The attackers are said to be minors. I asked the police department to deal with the case as per the law”.

The incident comes in the backdrop of the recent criticism of the police department by the Karnataka high court for their handling of a case where a woman was allegedly assaulted, paraded naked and tied to an electric pole in the district. A police official said: “An alleged affair involving three people, a boy from Navage village, a Class 10 girl from Karle village, and a 17-year-old boy from Badarwad village allegedly triggered the attack”.

According to initial probe, the Badarwad youth accompanied by a group of friends had confronted the Navage boy last Sunday over the girl, said the official. “A village meeting ensued, advising the boys to focus on their studies. However, tensions escalated when one of the elders slapped the Badarwad youth triggering the subsequent attack,” said a police officer in the know of the development. “In the early hours of Tuesday, the armed gang from Badarwad barged into Navage village, pelting stones at houses, damaging property, and instigating fear,” said the officer on the condition of anonymity.

After getting the information, deputy commissioner of police Rohan Jagadish, rushed to the village with additional force. The DCP said that the attackers pelted stones at four houses, damaged six cars, and a few two-wheelers.

“Based on the information shared by the villagers, we are checking if the gang brought a pistol or not,” DCP Jagadish said, adding that “it was a serious matter if a pistol was indeed brought”.

“We have recorded statements of the villagers and have launched a probe into the matter,” said the officer, adding, that all the accused “would be rounded up soon, and cases would be framed according to the law”. “There is no chance of considering the accused sympathetically over their age. The act they did is not a trivial crime,” the DCP said.

In a separate incident in the same constituency, a few people burned a Kannada flag on the night of the year-end celebration in Sulaga village. “The police have identified the culprits and they will be arrested soon,” said Hebbalkar. The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike meanwhile condemned the incident and warned of a state-wide movement if strict action was not taken against the accused.