BANGALORE: An Indian minister faced a severe backlash on Tuesday after he criticised women for dressing “like westerners” at a New Year’s eve celebration where a mob allegedly carried out a series of sex assaults.

Although police have yet to charge anyone in connection with the violence on Saturday night in Bangalore, local media have carried testimony and photos of victims cowering from their attackers or fleeing for safety.

Police say they are now trawling through CCTV footage to see if they can identify any of the attackers.

But a minister with responsibility for policing in the southern state of Karnataka, whose largest city is Bangalore, said the “unfortunate” attacks were a consequence of women wearing western clothing. “A large number of youngsters gathered — youngsters who are almost like westerners,” Karnataka’s Home Minister G Parameshwara told The Times Now television network, speaking in English.

“They try to copy westerners not only in mindset, but even the dressing, so some disturbance, some girls are harassed, these kind of things do happen.”

Parameshwara, who later claimed to have been misquoted, was widely condemned for his televised comments, with the central government’s junior home minister Kiren Rijiju describing them as “irresponsible”.

“We can’t allow the shameful act of #Mass­Molestation go unpunished,” he said on Twitter, adding that women’s safety is a “must in a civilised society”.

Lalitha Kumaraman­galam, who heads India’s National Commission for Women, said Parameshwara should resign over his comments. “I want to ask this minister: are Indian men so pathetic and weak that when they see a woman in western clothes on a day of revelry, they get out of control?

“When will the Indian men learn to respect women? The minister should apologise to the women of the country and resign,” Kumara­mangalam told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Senior Bangalore police officer Malini Krishna­moorthy told AFP no complaint had yet been filed and officers were scanning hours’ worth of CCTV footage.

“We have appealed to the public to come forward if they have evidence in any form,” the officer added.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2017