US official lauds protests against Dadri, Kalburgi killings

January 14, 2016

New Delhi, Jan 14: A senior US official on Wednesday lauded the protests by authors and artistes against the murder of rationalist and Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi and cited the instance of the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to drive home the point that silence could embolden perpetrators of such crimes.

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Delivering a lecture at Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi, Sarah B Sewall, US Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights, noted that the governments around the world must ensure that all people had the freedom to peacefully speak, organise and worship.

“But,” she added, “ensuring these freedoms calls for more than just enforcing laws, it means proactively speaking out – as both public officials and private citizens – to challenge calls for hatred and violence. Silence can embolden the criminal and the cruel – as in the lynching of a Muslim man last September or the burning of churches in Odisha.” Akhlaq was lynched by a mob at Bisara village near Dadri in Uttar Pradesh on September 28 after it was rumoured that he and his family had killed a cow and consumed beef on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha. She also referred to the murder of Kalburgi at Dharwad in Karnataka on August 30 last and noted that he was the third rationalist to be murdered in recent years.

“When extremists murdered Malleshappa Kalburgi last August to silence his critical views – the third such murder in as many years – the Indian literary and artistic community was among the first to condemn the act,” said Sewall, who is currently on a tour of India. She was obviously referring to the killing of Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare – at Pune in August 2013 and Kolhapur in Maharashtra in February 2015, respectively.

Over 30 authors returned their Sahitya Akademi award in September and October last year to protest the killing of Kalburgi, Dabholkar and Pansare as well as the lynching of Akhlaq. Several other artistes too returned their awards to protest what they perceived as “growing intolerance” in the country.“These examples of family and community-level interventions may help explain why so few Indians have joined ISIL’s (Islamic State) ranks thus far. But that is not reason for complacency; it is a call to give local leaders a greater role in pushing back against violent extremism in their communities,” said the US diplomat. “Governments can help by ending stifling regulations and allowing citizen groups to peacefully speak and organise around sensitive topics,” she said.

“Learning from the past, we must avoid the trap of invoking security to justify bigotry, profiling, and discrimination against any religious or ethnic group – including our Muslim brothers and sisters.”

Comments

TRUTH
 - 
Thursday, 14 Jan 2016

NO, THEY WILL OFFER SOME BEEF BURGER AND WINE TO KEEP QUITE !

Yo
 - 
Thursday, 14 Jan 2016

Now she spoke about intolarence in india... Will our BJP leaders will condemn this??? Lets wait and see

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March 25,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 25: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has so far given nod to three private laboratories in Karnataka for testing COVID-19. The ICMR comes under the Department of Health, Government of India

The three labs are KMC Hospital Manipal, Shankar Research Centre's laboratory, and SRL laboratory on Bowring Hospital Road at Shivajinagar, Bengaluru.

Eight private labs from Maharashtra, two from Haryana, three from Tamil Nadu, four from Delhi, and three each from Karnataka and Gujarat have been given permission. 

These labs have over 15,000 collection centres all over the country. Blood samples and throat swabs of coronavirus suspects can be given at these centres.

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January 9,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 9: Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner has lodged a complaint with the Police alleging that his signature was forged in a holiday circular for schools and colleges in the district during National General Strike called by Trade Unions.

It may be recalled that the district administration had declared a holiday for all educational institutions on December 20 and 21 in the backdrop of the December 19 violence.

A few miscreants had forged this order and circulated it on social media stating that a holiday had been declared for schools and colleges in the district on January 8.

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June 21,2020

Mangaluru, June 21: A local court has held notorious serial killer Cyanide Mohan Kumar guilty in the murder of a 25-year-old woman from Kasargod. This is the 20th and the last case of Cyanide Mohan to be tried in the sixth additional district and sessions court. 

According to public prosecutor Jayarama Shetty, the victim was working as a cook in a ladies hostel and got in touch with Mohan Kumar, a teacher. He visited her house thrice and promised to marry her. On July 8, 2009, on the pretext of visiting a temple in Sullia, she left home, never to return. 

They had travelled to Bengaluru and three days later, when her family tried to reach her on phone, he told them that she had gone for a bath and that they were married and would be returning back home soon.

The next day Ramakrishna, a constable from Upparpete police station, found a lady lying unconscious outside the bathroom and he immediately rushed her to a local hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival. Like in all other cases, after staying in a lodge and having sex with the victim, he took her to the KSRTC bus stand and asked her to consume a cyanide laced tablet, stating it was a contraceptive pill. 

He asked her to leave behind the jewellery that she was wearing at the hotel room. An unnatural death report was registered and since none of her relatives had turned up for identification of the body, on July 15,2009 the body was buried.

The moment the Dakshina Kannada district police arrested the serial killer on October 21, 2009 and his pictures were all over the media, the family recognised him and the victim’s younger sister filed a missing complaint. The police had also recovered the victim’s jewellery from the house of Mohan’s second wife and the jeweller from whom he had purchased cyanide had also identified him. Meanwhile, the CID had taken over the case and a charge sheet was filed.

"The report from the Forensic Science Laboratory is crucial in this case as cyanide was found in the victim’s viscera. Mohan over the years has become a legal expert and in this case, he had sought two adjournments," said Jayaram Shetty. Mohan is currently lodged in the Hindalga central jail.
 

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AJIT KUMAR
 - 
Sunday, 21 Jun 2020

shame to keep this man  alive for so many criminal cases, shoot him or hang him immideatly

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