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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Media Release
June 4,2020

Dr Soofi Anwar, Director Academics of University of Stirling RAK, UAE Campus, has achieved the prestigious professional recognition of Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) UK. He has achieved this milestone through the Stirling Framework for Evidencing Learning and Teaching Enhancement (SFELTE), the Continuing Professional Development Framework (CPD) for learning and teaching at University of Stirling, Scotland, UK. 

He was recognized for this achievement on recently concluded virtual Learning & Teaching Conference-2020 organized by University of Stirling Campus in UK.  He has secured his Ph.D. in Management from University of Azteca, Mexico.

Dr. Soofi Anwar has over 20 years of experience in teaching and academic leadership at higher education level and has worked in leading universities in UAE, Bahrain and India. He was conferred the prestigious Middle East Education Leadership Award, as the Best Professor in Management-2018 in recognition of his academic excellence, exemplary leadership in higher education. Prior to his current role, he has worked on leadership position in Birla Institute of Technology Offshore Campus RAK.

He has completed his MBA from Dept. of Business Administration, Mangalore University in 1999 and his B. Com degree from Canara College Mangaluru.

He has published numerous research papers in management and in the area of teaching and learning in higher education in reputed academic journals and international conferences proceedings. He is a member of editorial board of two leading management journals and engaged in reviewing faculty research publications in the area of management and marketing. 

He is a son of Haji Abdul Khadar Kodijal and Mrs. Mariyamma from Konaje, Mangaluru.

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News Network
January 22,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 22: The suspected man in planting of a live bomb at the Mangaluru International Airport surrendered before the DG and IG of Karnataka Police, Neelamani Raju, here on Wednesday, police sources said.

The accused was identified as Aditya Rao, a resident of Udupi.

The accused was taken for questioning by the Halasurugate Police, where he was being interrogated intensively, the sources further said.

According to them, he confessed that he planted an explosive device at Mangaluru Airport on Monday said that it was an act of revenge for denying him an employment by the Kempegowda International Airport Limited (KIAL).

He was arrested by the Bengaluru police in the past for making a hoax call to the police stating that a bomb had been planted at the Bengaluru Airport.

Karnataka Home minister Basavaraj Bommai told the media that 'the Bengaluru police have taken the custody of Aditya Rao, who is being subjected for a thorough interrogation'.

The Mangaluru police was also likely to join the Bengaluru police into the investigation, the sources added.

Also Read: Udupi’s Aditya Rao arrested for issuing bomb threats to Airport, railway station

Comments

sameer
 - 
Wednesday, 22 Jan 2020

This would have been a false flag operation, if he was not caught, they would have been an explosions and Dr.police would have put muslim youths behind bars...or that was the intention/plan but due to unforseen reasons failed......i hope someone comes out with the truth..

Alert
 - 
Wednesday, 22 Jan 2020

if he were to be a muslim, he would have benn branded terrorist. revenge and all these expalnations are just excuses. investigate from where an dhow he got bombs.

Ashi
 - 
Wednesday, 22 Jan 2020

Bomb has weaken once bomber name appears. Now time for fact finding, family emotions, personal attachments etc. If he was Muslim it would have connected to ISIS, Anti-CAA, Pakistan, Kerala..

 

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News Network
March 5,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 5: At 11 am on Friday, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa will present the State Budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal. Coming at a time when the state is facing financial challenges, the budget is expected to have minor tax shocks for citizens, while making space for big-ticket allocations to the agriculture and water resources ministries. Thursday's budget will be Yediyurappa’s seventh.

“Agriculture is our primary focus. The recent gazette notification of the Mahadayi tribunal order is a welcome move for Karnataka and we will make budgetary allocations for this too,” the CM had said.

The cut back in devolution of funds for Karnataka from the divisible pool, trimming of funds from the Union Government for Centrally-sponsored schemes and tax collections falling short of revenue targets have made matters tough for Yediyurappa. The consolation may be the part payment of one installment of GST compensation from the Centre. The GST compensation, in part for the October-November period, was released to the state in time for tabling of the budget.

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