MEERUT: In a shocking video that has gone viral, a Muslim man and woman , both in their 30s, can be seen being beaten mercilessly with sticks, allegedly by Bajrang Dal activists in Khurja town of Bulandshahr district . In the video, the group of men can be heard saying, "Tum Hindu mohalle ko ganda karte ho (You dirty Hindu localities)."The incident happened on Sunday, but clippings of it have come out just now and is being shared widely on the internet. Police confirmed the incident to TOI.The woman, whose face is covered in the video, can even be seen being dragged on the floor. While cops have arrested five persons, including the district convener of the Bajrang Dal, this has prompted Congress leader and minority rights activist Shehzaad Poonawala to seek a ban on the Bajrang Dal in a petition addressed to the National Commission for Minorities and to the Union home ministry.Vijay Prakash Singh, circle officer (Khurja), told TOI on Wednesday, “The man and woman are married to separate people but are long time friends of each other. They both happened to be in Khurja on Sunday so they decided to meet up and go out for lunch. They went to a local confectionery to have pizza but wanted to talk in private. This (the attack) happened when a while later some Bajrang Dal men noticed the two and were told that one of them is a Muslim."Singh added, "Praveen Bhati, the Bajrang Dal district convener, thought that it was a case of ‘love jihad’. Later he found out that both were Muslim, but he started beating them up anyway. We wasted no time in acting against the accused. There was no evidence of the pair doing anything inappropriate or illegal but the goons had beaten them up. We have arrested five of them and are investigating the case further to find the other accused.”