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. 

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MR
 - 
Sunday, 15 Jul 2018

WhatsApp should be banned in India.

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News Network
January 6,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 6: JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Monday said he would not get involved in any 'wicked act' of bringing down the B S Yediyurappa-led government in Karnataka, amid claims that 15 to 20 BJP MLAs were ready to come out.

Clarifying that he would not disturb the government, the former Chief Minister said for him, the development of the state was important. "With great difficulty, you (Yediyurappa) have become Chief Minister for the fourth time, (I am) happy, I have nowhere said that I will disturb your government. Even now some people come and ask why I'm sitting silent when 15-20 people are ready to come out of BJP and why don't I make an attempt (to poach them), Kumaraswamy said. Speaking to reporters in Hassan, he sought to know why he should get entangled in that 'sludge' and he was not in a hurry.

"I will not get involved in a wicked act of removing a responsible government like Yediyurappa did. For me the development of the state is important," he said.

Though Kumaraswamy had raised questions about the longevity of the BJP government ahead of the December 5 bypolls, he had even then given clear indications that he would not attempt to pull down the administration as it would affect the development of the state.

The ruling BJP had swept the by-elections by winning 12 of the total 15 seats, helping the Yediyurappa government retain the majority in the Assembly.

With BJP winning 12 of the 15 assembly constituencies, it's numbers went up from 105 (including an independent) to 117, which is well ahead of the halfway mark of 111 in a 223-member Assembly (two seats-- Maski and R R Nagar-- are vacant due to pending litigation in the High Court).

The BJP came to power after the Kumaraswamy-led Congress-JD(S) coalition government collapsed as 17 MLAs had rebelled against the alliance leadership and resigned as legislators, to later favour the saffron party.

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News Network
March 24,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 24: Underlining the seriousness of the coronavirus, which is spreading like wildfire in Karnataka, renowned Heart Surgeon and founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya Dr Devi Shetty on Tuesday predicted that Karnataka alone will have more than 80,000 people affected with the dreaded killer disease COVID-19 if people fail to protect themselves.

He urged the people to cooperate with the Government in preventing its further spread and immediately treat those who are affected.

Dr Shetty, urging the people to remain indoors and not to venture out, said those who are affected should not come out and remain in isolation even in their houses and take all precautions advised by doctors.

He said if 80,000 people in the state were affected, more than 20,000 need to be admitted to Hospital for treatment.

"More than 2000 affected need to be kept under ventilation and it requires more infrastructure in the hospitals," he said.

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News Network
June 10,2020

Mangaluru, Jun 10: A youth, who staged suicide drama at Netravati River Bridge near Thokkottu on the outskirts of the city, reportedly found alive in Shivamogga today.

Praveen Saphalya a 28-year-old man from Kurnad village in Bantwal taluk was missing since yesterday. His motorbike was found abandoned on the Netravati bridge at around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday (June 9).

It was suspected that he had committed suicide by jumping off the bridge. Hence, police and fire fighters had launched a search operation for his body in the river with the help of divers on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, the missing person reportedly surfaced in Shivamogga this morning.

According to sources, Saphalya was working as salesman for SLRK Limited, is reportedly deep in debt. Unable to face the harassment of his creditors, he had parked the bike on the bridge and left the city, sources said. Local police are probing the matter.

Also Read: Mangaluru: 33-year-old man found dead on Netravati river bank

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