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 26,2020

Mangaluru, Jul 26: Karnataka government has initiated steps to provide insurance cover for priests and others working in temples coming under the Endowment Department -- a move that will benefit 50,000 people and their families.

Speaking to media here on Saturday evening, Minister for Endowment Kota Srinivas Poojary said there is a need to implement the decision at the earliest to provide relief to the priests and families of employees working in temples.

Department officials have been directed to include employees of state-owned temples under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyothi Bima scheme and also enrol them under State Bank of India’s group personal accident insurance policy at the earliest. The Central insurance scheme will provide Rs 2 lakh cover to family members in case of death due to accidents.

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News Network
January 20,2020

Mysuru, Jan 20: Fears over CAA and proposed NRC have affected the ongoing 7th economic census. Following complaints of violence against enumerators and registration of FIR with people declining to give information, the state government has asked deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to hold awareness programmes about it.

The planning, programme monitoring & statistics department has requested the home department to provide cooperation at the police station level while additional chief secretary P Ravi Kumar, in his letter to all DCs, has asked them to create awareness. According to sources, enumerators in T Narasipura town of Mysuru district faced resistance as some residents misunderstood the reason for this census.

A senior officer of the directorate of economics and statistics said that additional chief secretary (ACS- Planning, Programme Monitoring & Statistics Department) Shalini Rajneesh has written to the home department and superintendents of police of all districts seeking their help to create awareness about the economic census.

According to sources in the directorate, in many places, people are refusing to share information under the misconception that it is related to CAA/ NRC. “Many are mistaken about the economic census. As a precaution, police help has been sought,” an officer said.

Authorities in Mysuru said the 7th economic census began on December 20 and will conclude on March 30.

“In Mysuru city alone, we need to cover a population of 11 lakh. In T Narasipura, we faced problems due to misconceptions about Census and CAA. We reported the incident which happened in an area where minorities reside in large numbers,” he explained. Mysuru SP CB Rishyanth said his office has not received any direction in this matter.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 9,2020

Dubai, May 9: A flight scheduled to bring back Kannadigas, especially Mangalureans stranded in Dubai on May 14 has been rescheduled to May 12.

The flight will take off from Dubai at 4.10 pm UAE time and reach Mangaluru International Airport at 9.10 pm IST on May 12, announced Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda in a tweet.

The flight was earlier scheduled for May 12 and then it was postponed to May 14. Now, it has been rescheduled to May 12.

It is said that constant persuasion from NRIs in UAE led to advance the paid evacuation drive.

In fact, Karnataka was missing in the list of states to receive special flights when Ministry of External Affairs arranged them to bring stranded Indians at UAE. Special flights were arranged only to Kerala and Tamil Nadu people stranded at UAE in the first stage.

Thanks to Karnataka NRI Forum of UAE which opened helpline to seek assistance to Kannadigas, nearly 2000 Kannadigas have registered for assistance in which 127 pregnant women, 27 senior citizens, 700 people who have lost jobs aftermath of coronavirus sought assistance from NRI forum.

In the first flight, priority will be given to people with medical emergency and pregnant women. Once the passengers reach Mangaluru, they will be quarantined in their home districts.

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