25-year-old student from Telangana shot in US restaurant, dies

Agencies
July 8, 2018

Washington, Jul 8: A 25-year-old Indian student was fatally shot in the back during a suspected attempted robbery at a restaurant where he worked in Kansas City in the US state of Missouri, according to authorities.

Kansas City Police identified the victim as University of Missouri-Kansas City student Sharath Koppu, who was shot at on Friday evening at J’s Fish and Chicken Market near 54th and Prospect, where he worked as a part-time employee. He died shortly after being taken to a hospital.

Koppu from Telangana was a software engineer who came to the US in January to pursue his master’s degree.

“An Indian student became victim of shooting in Kansas City, Missouri. We r in contact with his family & police. We will provide all assistance. Our officers are also on the way to Kansas City (sic),” the Consulate General of India in Chicago tweeted on Saturday.

Kansas City police announced a USD 10,000 reward for information leading to the suspect and released a brief video of the suspect inside the restaurant moments before the shooting.

“Looking for this suspect in the robbery & murder of 25-y.o. Sharath Kopuu at 5412 Prospect last night. Sharath was from India and is a student at UMKC. $10,000 reward for info leading to charges in this (& every KCMO murder),” police tweeted along with the brief video of the suspect.

Koppu’s cousin created a GoFundMe account in the victim’s name to pay for his body to be returned to India. The account raised USD 25,000 in three hours, The Kansas City Star reported.

“He had the same dreams like everyone else, to make it BIG in the land of opportunity. He had a great sense of humour and always made people laugh and was always eager to lend a helping hand,” wrote the cousin, Raghu Chowdavaram, in the description of the GoFundMe account.

“Little did anybody know that life is about to take a big unfortunate turn on a fateful day of July 6th 2018.” People at a nearby motel said they heard five gunshots from the direction of the restaurant,  the paper said.

On Saturday afternoon, the restaurant remained closed during normal business hours. A sticker on the front door announced surveillance cameras are in place, presumably as a means to deter crime, the paper said.

A worker at the restaurant described to the paper what he saw on extended surveillance footage that has not been made public.

The suspect, wearing a brown shirt with white stripes, demanded money and pulled out a gun. “He’s scared he’s going to die,” the man said of Koppu.

As people ducked or ran for cover around him, Koppu bolted directly away from the suspect, toward the back of the store.

“(Koppu) ran, so he shot him” in the back, the paper quoted the worker as saying.

Three or four customers were in the store at the time of the attempted robbery, the man said, as well as several employees behind the counter.

The university has reached out to Koppu’s family in India, and counselling services are available to the university community, according to a statement released on Saturday.

“We offer our sincere sympathies to Sharath’s family and friends in the wake of this senseless tragedy,” the statement said.

UMKC Chancellor C Mauli Agrawal offered his own condolences in a tweet last evening.

“Sharath and I share an Indian heritage, but all of us at UMKC share in the grief such tragedies bring,” Agrawal wrote.

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News Network
May 27,2020

New Delhi, May 27: With 6,387 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, India's count of COVID-19 rose to 1,51,767 on Wednesday, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

170 people have also died in the last 24 hours due to the infection.

Currently, there are 83,004 active cases while 64,425 COVID-19 positive patients have been cured/discharged and one has migrated. So far, a total of 4,337 deaths have taken place across the country.

Among all states, Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 54,758. Tamil Nadu has 17,728 cases with Gujarat at 14,821 cases. The national capital has 14,465 reported cases of coronavirus.

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News Network
May 12,2020

May 12: Gunmen stormed a hospital on Tuesday in an ongoing attack in the Afghan capital Kabul, as a suicide blast killed 15 people at a funeral in the country's restive east.

Special forces rescued 80 people including mothers and babies from the Kabul hospital after three gunmen launched a morning assault, killing at least four people, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Heavily armed forces were seen carrying babies wrapped in blankets away from the scene, as the clearance operation continued.

The facility, which has a large maternity ward, is located in the west of the city, home to the capital's minority Shiite Hazara community -- a frequent target of Sunni militants from the Islamic State group.

The flare-up in violence comes as Afghanistan grapples with myriad crises including a rise in militant operations across the country and a surge in coronavirus infections.

A paediatrician who fled the hospital told AFP he heard a loud explosion at the entrance of the building.

"The hospital was full of patients and doctors, there was total panic inside," he said, asking not to be named.

The maternity services at the hospital are supported by humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

"Hospitals and health workers must not be attacked. We call on all sides to stop attacking hospitals and health workers," said deputy health minister in the city, Waheed Majroh.

Around an hour later, a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people at the funeral of a local police commander in the country's eastern Nangarhar province, according to provincial spokesman Ataullah Khogyani.

The attacker detonated his explosives in the middle of the ceremony.

Zaher Adel, spokesman for the government hospital in Jalalabad, earlier said 12 bodies had arrived from the blast site and more than 50 people were being treated for injuries.

Amir Mohammad, who was wounded in the blast, said thousands of people had gathered for the funeral, an event which often draws huge crowds in Afghanistan.

The violence comes just a day after four roadside bombs exploded in a northern district of Kabul, wounding four civilians including a child.

The bombings were later claimed by the Islamic State group, according to the SITE intelligence group.

They were just the latest in a string of IS attacks on the capital.

In March, at least 25 people were killed by a gunman at a Sikh temple in Kabul, which was later claimed by the group.

IS is also responsible for an infamous attack in March 2017 on one of the country's largest hospitals, when gunmen disguised as doctors stormed the Kabul building and killed dozens.

In recent months, the jihadist group has suffered mounting setbacks after being hunted by US and Afghan forces as well as Taliban offensives targeting their fighters, but it still retains the ability to launch major assaults on urban centres.

The Taliban have largely refrained from launching large attacks on Afghan cities since February when they signed a landmark withdrawal deal with the US meant to pave the way for peace talks with the Kabul government.

Under the agreement, the Taliban promised not to target forces from the US-led coalition, but made no such pledge toward Afghan troops and have stepped up attacks in the provinces.

The Taliban have denied involvement in both of Tuesday's attacks.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Jan 27: Bollywood Film Director Anurag Kashyap, who has been vocal about his political views on social media, slammed Union Minister Amit Shah and accused him of being 'cheap'.

"How timid our Home Minister is. Its own police, its own goons, its own army and security increases and invades unarmed protestors. Amit Shah has crossed the extent of cheapness and inferiority. History will spit on this animal," Kashyap tweeted.

The film director has taken an active part in the anti-Citizenship Act protest rallies and was against the Jawaharlal Nehru violence. He also came in support of his contemporary Deepika Padukone when the latter faced backlash for showing up at JNU in support of the students.

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