Mangaluru: Missing Aloy girls’ Muslim WhatsApp-friend tortured by police

Bengaluru, Jan 25: Several women have completed a 24-hour protest here against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and are going strong to stretch it to 48 hours.

"More than a thousand women gathered on the Masjid Road at Frazer Town to denounce the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC)," participant and Mount Carmel College student Noor Zahira told IANS.

The women protesters extended their support to the students in Jamia Millia Islamia, the Aligarh Muslim University, the Jawaharlal Nehru University and others who were recently roughed up allegedly by police and masked goons.

Zahira, 20, said the women's protest was planned only for 24 hours but is continuing to touch 48 hours.

Starting 3pm on Thursday, the women, several of them in burqas, niqabs and hijabs, are sitting on the road just outside the Haji Sait mosque in Frazer Town in a flash protest. Though they have informed the police, they did not wait for the permission. Around 11 pm, police arrived and shut off the protesters' loud speakers.

Zahira said already four such women's anti-CAA protests were taken out in Bengaluru. Women from all ages groups have joined the protest and are sloganeering.

As the women are protesting on the road, men are guarding them standing on the opposite road, ensuring all supplies such as food and others to them, she added.

"Muslim women were not alone in denouncing the CAA... we were joined by the transgenders, Hindu women, Christian women, Dalits and others, " she said.

Some of the protesters also indulged in creative work such as composing songs against the CAA and making placards.

Though four anti-CAA women's protests happened at the Town Hall and other landmarks in Bengaluru, they were only a few hours long.

The protesting women are also showing support to women protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi who were accused of demonstrating for Rs 500. However, the protest did not align anti-CAA demonstration with any political party, keeping it apolitical.

Bengaluru, Jul 9: The total number of Covid-19 infections in Karnataka on Thursday breached the 30,000 mark as the state reported its biggest single-day spike of over 2,200 new cases and 17 related fatalities, taking the death toll to 486, the Health department said.

The day also saw a record 957 patients getting discharged after recovery, out of which 606 were from Bengaluru Urban.

Out of the 2,228 fresh cases reported on Thursday, a whopping 1,373 were from Bengaluru Urban alone.

The previous biggest single-day spike was recorded on July 8 with 2,062 cases.

As of July 9 evening, cumulatively 31,105 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 486 deaths and 12,833 discharges, the Health department said in its bulletin.

It said, out of 17,782 active cases, 17,325 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 457 are in ICU.

"Death rate in Karnataka is 1.49 percent, while in Bengaluru is 1.28 percent, and our target is to bring it below 1 percent," Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar told reporters.

"The reason for spike in cases in Bengaluru and other places in recent days is because during the last four months of lockdown we had controlled it very well, but as we relaxed lockdown for economic activities we did not follow certain precautionary measures like distance among other things," he said.

The Minister also conceded that there were lapses on part of the government also in terms of tracing and tracking.

"It has to be improved especially in Bengaluru and we are taking steps in this regard."

Among the 17 dead seven were from Dharwad, two each from Hassan, Kalaburagi, Mysuru, and one each from Raichur, Uttara Kannada, Tumakuru and Davangere.

The deceased include 13 men and 4 women.

The dead are all either with a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI).

Out of 2,228 fresh cases today, contacts of the majority of the cases are still under tracing.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 1,373, followed by Dakshina Kannada (167), Kalaburagi (85) and Dharwad (75).

Bengaluru urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 13,882 infections, followed by Kalaburagi (1,901) and Dakshina Kannada 1,701.

Among discharges Bengaluru urban tops the list with total 2,834, followed by Kalabuagi (1,392) and Udupi (1,206).

A total of 7,79,209 samples were tested so far, out of which 20,028 were tested on Thursday alone.

So far 7,28,887 samples have been reported as negative, and of them 17,568 were reported negative today.

Bengaluru, Mar 15: All 21 Madhya Pradesh MLAs from Jyotiraditya Scindia's camp, who were lodged here at Prestige Golfshire Club, have been shifted to Ramada hotel in Yelahanka ahead of Monday's floor test in the state assembly.

In view of their arrival, the concerned authorities have strengthened security outside the hotel.

Following the exit of Scindia from Congress, these MLAs claimed to have resigned from the state Legislative Assembly.

On March 11, Congress sent two of its leaders -- Sajjan Singh Verma and Govind Singh -- to Bengaluru in order to pacify some of these rebel MLAs.

Most of the rebel MLAs are perceived close to Scindia and were apparently unhappy at Scindia being "ignored" in the party.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs, who arrived in Bhopal from Jaipur today morning ahead of the floor test in the Assembly on Monday, have been shifted to Courtyard by Marriott Hotel.

These MLAs were accompanied by senior Congress leader Harish Rawat, who exuded confidence of Kamal-Nath led government winning floor test in the Assembly.

Both Congress and BJP have issued whips to all its MLAs for the legislative assembly session in Madhya Pradesh, which is scheduled to be held from March 16 to April 13.

On Saturday, Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon had directed that a floor test will be held in the assembly on Monday.