Bidar: Mob kills Google techie Mohammad Azam, injures his 3 friends over WhatsApp rumours

coastaldigest.com web desk
July 15, 2018

Bidar, Jul 15: In yet another gruesome attack over the deadly social media rumours about child-lifters, a violent mob brutally attacked four Muslim men, killing one among them at Murki village in Aurad taluk of Bidar district in Karnataka. 

The police have arrested 32 people including a WhatsApp group admin and a few women in connection with the Friday’s attack, third such incident in Karnataka. 

The deceased has been identified as Mohammad Azam Usmansab (32), a software engineer, who was working with Google. The injured are his friends: Mohammad Salman Alinor, Talha Ismail Qureshi, and Noor Mohammad Sadique. They have been shifted to a hospital in Hyderabad. 

The victims had come to the village following an invitation from their friend. Azam had gone for a drive with the friends when they were stopped at the roadside. One among them, who had brought plenty of chocolates from Qatar, started distributing them among local children.

Rumours of child lifting were doing the rounds in the area and seeing the chocolates being handed out, residents of a nearby village, Murki, sent messages on a WhatsApp group.

Soon, a large crowd gathered and started an argument and taking videos. Panicking, the men got into their car and drove away. Some of the villagers chased them on motorbikes, said the police. Some way off, the speeding car hit one of the motorcycles and fell into a culvert.

As the crowd caught up, the men were dragged out of the car and brutally beaten up, said eye witnesses. Hundreds of villagers gathered but none came to their rescue. By the time the police arrived, Mohammad Azam had died. The others were taken to the hospital in Hyderabad.

"They had gone out for a drive. My brother gave chocolates to children. We don't know what their parents thought but several villagers gathered and beat them. How can they think they were kidnappers?" said Mohammad Azam's brother Akram. 

Appealing to the government to stop mob killings, Akram said, "My brother was a software engineer, father of a 2-year-old. He was just a regular guy".

The other three friends were badly injured. One of them is fighting for his life at a local hospital.

Dozens of innocent people have been killed across India over fake WhatsApp rumours. The last such incident took place in Maharashtra's Dhule, where five people were killed. The WhatsApp videos that had triggered the attack were fake - one of them was a five-year-old video from Syria that had photographs of children who died in a nerve gas attack. 

Comments

MR
 - 
Sunday, 15 Jul 2018

WhatsApp should be banned in India.

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News Network
July 18,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 18: Veteran actor Hulivana Gangadharaiah has passed away due to novel Coronavirus at the age of 70 on Friday night at a private hospital. He has acted in films, plays and serials as well.

He was acting in the romantic serial Premaloka which has Vijay Suriya and Ankitha Navya Gowda in lead roles.

According to reports, after he showed the symptoms of having Coronavirus, he got self-isolated at his farm house. When his health condition deteriorated, he was admitted to the hospital. Gangadhariah has acted in over 100 films, 150 plays and many serials lived his life in a simple way.

Condoling the death of Gangadharaiah, T N Seetharam on his Facebook page posted, “The death of a friend and a wonderful actor Hulivana Gangandharaiah is painful. In Aaspota play, the role of a driver he played brought immense popularity ro the play. When George Fernandes watched the play he appreciated his character. In the serial Muktha Muktha, he played the role of a politician Rajanandaswamy with ease which was aired for over three years brought us closer. In the modern theatre, Nagesh whom I consider as Guru used to cast Gangadharaiah in each play he directed which reflected the kind of faith he had in him. After a few years, he got involved in agriculture so I did not had much contact with him. It’s been nearly eight years I last met him. It is very sad that we have lost him.”

Lead actor of the serial Premaloka, Vijay Suriya has also mourned the death of Hulivana Gangadharaiah who was seen in a pivotal role in the serial.

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News Network
April 3,2020

Bengaluru, April 3: Thirteen people in Karnataka, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, have tested positive for coronavirus, said state education minister S Suresh Kumar.

"13 attendees of Delhi's Tablighi Jamaat event have tested COVID-19 positive and 187 were tested negative," said Kumar, who has been entrusted to look into queries related to COVID-19.

He added, "A total number of four COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed today -- a 75-year-old man in Bagalkote, a 70-year-old in Belagavi, a 26-year-old in Belagavi and a 20-year-old in Belagavi."

"The three people from Belagavi had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi," he said, adding that the total number of cases in the state increased to 128.

The reports of 88 other people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event are yet to be received, the minister said.

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India on Friday rose to 2,547 including 162 cured/discharged and 62 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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News Network
March 11,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 11: Amid the prevailing political uncertainty in Madhya Pradesh with Jyotiraditya Scindia's exit, Congress leader DK Shivakumar on Wednesday asserted that "leaders may come and go but no one can destroy Congress."

"No one can destroy Congress. Leaders may come, leaders may go, that doesn't make any difference," said Shivakumar while speaking to news agency on the current political scenario for Congress in Madhya Pradesh.

Speaking about the Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs, who are lodged in Bengaluru, he said: "All the Madhya Pradesh MLAs who are here do not want to lose their membership. I am sure they will understand, go back and save the government."

On Tuesday, Congress sent two of its leaders -- Sajjan Singh Verma and Govind Singh -- to Bengaluru in order to pacify some of the rebel MLAs who are lodged in a hotel there and who claimed to have resigned from the state Legislative Assembly.

After meeting with 19 party MLAs who have tendered their resignations, Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma on Wednesday said they are neither willing to support Jyotiraditya Scindia nor in favour of joining BJP as they were "misled and taken to Bengaluru" in Karnataka.

"Nobody is ready to go with Scindia ji. They said they were misled and taken to Bengaluru, most of them said they are not ready to join BJP," Verma told ANI on being asked about the 19 MLAs.

"I just came from Bengaluru and now I am going to Jaipur. Besides 5-6 ministers and one MLA, we all are going to Jaipur. They (MLAs) have said they have the blood of Congress and they will remain in the party. Since Scindia was a senior party leader, all our MLAs followed his order as a courtesy," he said.

The Congress leader further claimed that BJP is using both "muscle and money power" to influence Congress MLAs.

He also claimed that he is strongly in contact with 7-8 BJP MLAs.

Most of the rebel MLAs are perceived close to Scindia and are apparently unhappy at Scindia being "ignored" in the party. The grand old party has been witnessing an internal turf war in Madhya Pradesh since the party formed the government in the state in 2018.

Scindia is likely to join BJP later today.

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